Dr. Nicole LePera

So I had to have new boundaries coming from a family who had had no boundaries, had an expectation.

I come from an Italian family that for Sunday supper, you were there.

And there was like a expectation that I'd be more present than in the beginning I was able.

So that was the first kind of set of boundaries, which I do think to some extent was...

disappointing was hurtful, right?

They took it personally, though they very much supported what I was doing.

But I mean, I would be lying if I said there wasn't then the reality of what I was doing and sharing in my business was built on sharing my life, right?

So then there was that piece of, especially with my dad in particular, my mom a little less so because cognitively she was already starting to decline during the end of her life.

But there was a question and confusion, like there was many conversations where my dad or my mom would come to me and be like,

why do you have to use us as the example?

Like, why do you have to share about our family?

And so I would explain to them, well, I did because, A, this is the only experience that I can speak from because it's the only one I've lived, and B, our family and our experience is so common.

There's nothing to be shameful about it.

I don't think you were ill-intented at all.

I think you were two parents literally doing the best that they can.

So there was those type of conversations that had happened in the beginning, and now...

several years in.

I mean, my family was just up in New York City when I had my book event just a couple weeks ago.

My dad sat front row, was crying, you know, with pride.

So there's been a lot of evolution and acceptance of why I have to, to some extent, air my family's dirty laundry.