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The Viall Files

E927 Ask Nick - His Brother Is A Bum

05 May 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What issues does Rachel face with her boyfriend's parenting?

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Yeah. Anyway, so she's about to get deported? Because of the new administration. Sure. She's from Venezuela. And so she's here on a sponsorship. And basically, she has to go back. And so now his parents are thinking, oh, let's just kind of put him on her to deal with. They can get married. And so then now they can live on their own. But he has no money.

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So how did this happen? It sounds like your husband is not the same person. He's the opposite. I don't know what happened because they were both raised the same way, but my husband, he is adopted. And so I think they were both very privileged growing up. They didn't have to like- Your husband's adopted, but your brother-in-law wasn't?

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He's, no. Yeah, he, yeah. And so I think my husband realized growing up, like he could have had a very different life. And so he's always tried to work hard and try to, Thank his, his adoptive parents for giving him that life. Yeah. And then his brother just never learned.

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I'm willing to bet they weren't raised the same way. in probably not even obvious ways, you know, and that's not even really that important. Like, I don't think you need to be like, hey, you know, I talked to a podcaster and he said, you know, like, I'm just saying, like, there's clearly a huge difference in how these young men grew up.

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Obviously, with your husband being adopted, makes a lot of sense what you're saying in terms of how he perceived it, you know, and his decision to take advantage of this opportunity, literally, you know, that he was blessed with. And I don't mean like they were loved differently.

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And I don't know, it's clearly your, your husband sounds like he got the benefit of better parenting almost, but they probably weren't raised the same, you know, just like maybe every child in a, regardless of adopted or not, in some ways might be raised differently and without parents even necessarily realizing, you know, like overall, yeah, I'm sure they're, but they probably weren't.

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Not that that really matters and there's nothing really to unpack there, but they probably weren't just because like, I mean, the fact that his parents are allowing this to happen, I mean, cause they are, they are allowing this to happen.

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The fact that their big plan to get their son out of the house is to hope that he finds a wife is not a plan because like, how do they know that he's not going to want him and his wife to live in the basement?

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Oh, I've told them that. We've made them aware. You know she's probably going to move in with y'all. And then if she ends up pregnant, then y'all are going to have to take care of their child.

Chapter 2: How can Rachel address concerns about her boyfriend's son?

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Yeah, someone who's like, his girlfriend is just literally fighting to be in this country. Any home is a blessing. Certainly a nice home, even if it's not her home. Yeah. I mean, I don't blame her. I don't blame her, but I'm concerned for her because I don't want her to end up having to take care of him.

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because he's like a man child i think you might hate my advice though but my advice is like it's kind of not your problem and i think you're you know and there's only so much you can do i understand and empathize with your concern as it relates to your daughter but i think there's ways you know like you all you can control is what you can control right you can control the fact that you are your daughter's mother and you have you are in a position to set boundaries sit her down have conversations how old your daughter

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She's 15 months old.

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Okay. So incredibly young, right? Like she's, she's river's age, right? Like, you know, so right now, like you spend more, I'm guessing, you know, you spend a lot of time fantasizing about her getting older lessons. You'll want to teach her. I'm sure you and your husband talk about what type of parents you want to be and yada, yada. Like she's so young right now. Like, I totally get it.

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But like we as parents, we cannot raise bubble kids. You know, we cannot, we can only do so much to protect our children. We cannot stop our children from facing the world because the world is just not going to care about them the way we care about our children as parents, right? It's our job, at least my belief, to prepare our children for all the things that life is going to come at them.

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While this isn't an ideal situation, like I wouldn't want it for myself, just no more than you would want it for your situation and your daughter, but it's still an opportunity.

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It is an opportunity to like, you know, as your child gets older and maybe, you know, one, you can just say, you can set boundaries being like, if there really is an uncomfortable environment, you can simply say to grandma and grandpa, like I am just not comfortable with our daughter being there alone with him. I would love for you guys to babysit at our house and he's not allowed to be there.

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you know, it might come down to saying something like that. As your daughter gets older, you can sit her down and just say, yeah, that's not uncle blah, blah, blah is we don't approve of that behavior. And if, and if, and if he doesn't like that, he's being taught, his niece is being taught that that's a him problem. But like, you know what I'm saying?

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Like you, you can, can, as long as you and your husband are on the same page, as long as you guys are aligned, Again, you can only control so much about life showing up at your child's doorstep and saying, hey, I'm a problem. And how are you going to deal with this problem?

Chapter 3: What advice does Nick give about parenting styles?

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Stop letting her have all the power. Stop, you know, letting her take control of the situation and just be, have the guts to say, I'm not going to let you treat me this way. Like this is bullshit, you know? And immediately I took that power back, which is why she showed up at my parents' house and was like, no, let's get back together.

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You know, you know, so sometimes you've got to show a little guts. I got gut. I know, yeah. I mean, listen, yeah, again, you did the very hard thing early on, but he was able to... Yeah. Just he, I feel like it was like, uh, I was giving him, he diluted my water. Yeah. It was very clear.

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It's also challenging when someone you care about says I'm depressed, you know, you're not a doctor, you know, like, I don't know, even like, even if you were a therapist, like, you know, like what, sometimes people just are depressed and there's, I don't know, like, yeah, I guess you can take medication.

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There's, I don't know, but like, it's a very helpless feeling to care about someone who's going through depression. Right. So I get it. Like you kind of had, almost no expectations. And then when this man shows up and says, I'm really sorry for how I treated you, it probably felt like, wow, wow, wow. I'm really like, wow.

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You know, cause you have like the lowest of expectations of someone who's like depressed, but, and he kind of got you with your low expectations of him. But regardless of his depression, and I empathize with what he's going through, you deserve a certain level of care and treatment.

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And if he can't give it to you or doesn't want to, you need to walk away and you have the right to say that and not coddle him. Okay. So I'm going to text him and I'm going to say, I want to talk to you. Meet me. Yeah. Do I give him like the day or do I? I mean, sure.

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It's not like, hey, you have to meet me in 12 minutes or else. But like, yeah. Yeah, I know. I'd like, I want to meet with you. Let me know when you have time. Okay. And he should be pretty accommodating, assuming that it's easy to schedule. You show up and then just tell him exactly what you want and be open to anything, you know?

5304.907 - 5305.147 Derek

Yeah.

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But if you don't get a fairly quick, I would like that too. And yes, then you have your answer. And that's all I want. I just want the clarity. Okay. Well, let's make sure that's what you're looking for. And if, again, anything other than a yes is a no. Okay. Maybe is a no. Yeah, I don't want a maybe. This has been going on since we officially broke up in November.

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