The Dr. John Delony Show - My Racist Husband Thinks I’m Too Sensitive
Episode Date: January 30, 2026On today’s episode, we hear about: A woman whose husband has become racist and misogynistic A dad wanting to develop a relationship with the daughter he gave up 30 years ago A man wonderin...g if he should move in with his future in-laws Next Steps: ❤️ Get away with your spouse today! 🔥Reconnect every day. Download the Together App. 📞 Ask John a question! Call 844-693-3291 or send us a message. 📚 Building a Non-Anxious Life 📝 Anxiety Test 📚 Own Your Past, Change Your Future ❓ Questions for Humans Conversation Cards 💭 John’s Free Guided Meditation 🤘🏼 The Dr. John Delony Show Merch Connect With Our Sponsors: Head to Beam and use code DELONY for an exclusive discount—because better sleep, energy, and focus start tonight. Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp. Keep your home safe and under control. Go to Cove Smart and use code DELONY for up to 80% off your first order. Get an exclusive offer with code DELONY at Cozy Earth. Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. Go to Dutch Pet and use code DELONY to get $50 off a year of vet care. Go love your pets! Visit Hallow for a 90-day free trial. Visit Helix Sleep for special offers. Working knives for working people—Go to Montana Knife Company to see what’s available now! Explore Poncho Outdoors! Get 25% off your order at Thorne. Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
He'll make racial remarks and, like, massagistic remarks towards, like, me, other women.
You're asking me how to get a guy who is racist, anti-Semitic, who makes derogatory comments about women to his wife in front of their kids and other women to get him to go to counseling?
Hey, welcome to the Dr. John Deloney's show. I'm John. Glad that you're here. I'm a husband and a dad.
And a guy's been sitting with hurting people for over two days.
decades here in Nashville, Tennessee, taking calls, your calls from all over the planet, real people
going through real challenges. I'd love to have you on this show. If you want to be with us,
go to johndeloney.com slash ask. ASK, fill out the form, and we'll see if we can get you on the show.
It's got to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and talk to Kristen. Hey, Kristen, what's up, lady?
Hey, John, how are you? I'm good. How are you?
You know, hanging by a thread. Oh, God. Well, I'm glad that you called.
Yeah, all good.
Yeah, so I called.
I would just appreciate some maybe guidance or advice on how to ask my husband to go back to a couple's counseling with me after he made it clear.
He will not do it again.
Well, so you probably can't because he seems pretty clear.
Why do you want him to go to counseling again?
I just see a big...
change in him and I just don't see how we can move forward in our marriage if we don't talk to
somebody about it.
What's going on?
I've noticed like in the past few years, maybe a year and a half or so, just like he's changed a lot
as far as like he'll make racial remarks and like massagistic remarks towards like me,
other women, like anti-Semitic remarks towards me.
It's in front of our kids.
And I just...
Do you have Jewish heritage?
I can't do it anyone.
I'm sorry, say that again.
Do you have Jewish heritage?
I have ancestry in it, but it's not like I grew up in the face or anything.
So you're asking me how to get a guy who is...
racist,
anti-Semitic
who makes derogatory comments
about women to his wife
in front of their kids
and other women
to get him to go to counseling?
Yeah.
I don't think counseling is his problem.
His problem is he sucks.
Yeah, I know.
And it just like, it wasn't like this.
He's always been a colorful guy,
but like, it's never been like this.
And I just...
What happens when you say,
Okay, because let's be honest.
There was a season when
even whispering a funny joke
or an unfunny joke
or an unfunny joke
would get you to where you couldn't have a job
anywhere, right? There was the cancellation
years, we call them.
And in some places, they're still
in effect, but other places, whatever.
And then we've had the last few years
what they're, like, everything's
back on the table again, right?
And here's here's the thing.
There is a,
I live in comedy clubs, right?
So I've seen a resurgence in more,
what I would call off color or like,
oh my gosh,
can't believe you said that comedy.
But at least where I am,
it's all part of,
it's in good nature and good fun.
You get what I'm saying?
Mm-hmm.
Like there's high fives all around
in the green room is what I would say.
Right?
And any jokes are not at people, they are with people.
Okay?
And hope what I'm saying makes sense.
Yeah.
But then there's been a rise in, or it feels like an unleashing in, oh, now that we
cannot lose our job, I'm going to tell you what I really think.
And it's not a joke.
It's not being silly.
It's not being funny.
It's not pointing out things.
It is.
I feel powerful again.
I'm going to hurt people with my word.
words, make myself feel bigger.
And so you say like your husband's always been a colorful guy.
I've always been a colorful guy.
And in my university work over 20 years, I spent a lot of time advocating for groups out
on the margin.
That's just what I, that was part of my job.
That was an important part of my job.
And spending time of those people, we would make horrific jokes if told outside of that
room, right?
And, but there's a, I would consider myself a colorful guy.
But there's also a time and a place and a context.
text, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so I don't think you'd be calling if your husband was making inappropriate yet kind of funny jokes.
It sounds like what you're commenting on is the spirit of your husband has changed.
Yeah, it used to be where it was, like, funny and good natured, and now it just feels like, like, much darker.
Hmm.
And it just, it bothers me, and if I tell him, it bothers me, he just goes off on, like, how I'm
sensitive and everybody is so sensitive now and you can't say anything and it's like I just I'm
walking on eggshells all the time okay but this is happening not just with jokes and not just with
suddenly this newfound racist person in your house what's deeper happening I'm not I'm really not
sure and I feel like I can't ask him where else is this research where else is this surfacing
is it surfacing in how he talks to your kids and treat your kids is it surfacing in the bedroom and
what he expects of you.
Where is this surfacing?
Is he controlling the money now?
Like, where is this else?
No, no, no.
There's no, there's no like controlling of the money.
It's like, it's almost like, like he'll try to have a conversation with me or like he's just very,
I guess, politically minded.
He likes to talk about it.
And like, that's just not me.
And so he'll try to like draw it out of me and he gets angry.
It's like, or irritated.
It's like I don't kind of go along with it or have this conversation with him.
and that's where a lot of it will be, or it'll just be kind of like random.
Let's take joke sensitivity off the table, because that's so unsubjective.
I mean, so subjective.
Let's pretend you had really sensitive skin, and he bought you a, I don't know, like a wool jacket.
And it rubbed your forearms in a way that just caused, like, it made them raw.
okay
and if you said
hey I love this jacket
I love it you bought this for me
but my skin is really sensitive
and it's making my arms
like bleed
making him itch
would he tell you
you just got to toughen up
and get tougher skin
no or do you say
oh man I tried
yeah you can't wear that jacket
yeah he would say that he tried
and I don't have to wear it
okay
when it comes to
what hurts my feelings
are what is offensive to me or what, forget offense,
what I'm not interested in hearing,
if somebody has the courage to say,
hey, I don't think that's funny,
or I don't think that's accurate,
or that's not a conversation I want to engage in.
And somebody's response is,
oh, you're just too,
then what they're trying to get from that conversation
is a sense of power over.
And that's not marriage.
Marriage is being with, not over.
Do you feel confident that you've been clear about, hey, I've seen a shift in you.
And I don't think these things are funny.
And it's not because I'm extra sensitive.
It's not because I'm, or maybe I am extra sensitive.
Who cares?
I get to be that.
But I don't want these jokes in my house.
I don't want these jokes around me.
And I don't want this kind of language and talk and mean spirit around my kids.
I guess I haven't been super clear about it.
I just like, it just, it feels like when I try to tell him,
I don't like it.
Like, it just, like, spiraled into an argument.
Okay.
And I just, I was hoping, like, if we went back to therapy,
there'd be, like, a third person there that would maybe prevent that.
No.
It's, it's, he's already said I'm not doing that again.
Yeah.
And so it's less about this thing.
Most of the time, here's what happens.
He drops some inappropriate or rude or mean-spirited thing out on the table.
And in some level, it's to get a right.
rise out of the room, right? He gets the rise, and the rise he gets is your pushback. Well, he thinks
he's right. And so now we're in a fight. So the best time to have this conversation is not after he
just said something super offensive. The best time is to say, hey, I want to go have breakfast on
Saturday morning. We need to talk about something that's kind of heavy. And you lay it out. I'm
uncomfortable with this. I don't think this is funny. I think this is belittling and mean. These
aren't jokes with the community. These are jokes against people and I just don't want to have that.
And I especially don't want it around my kids. Call me sensitive, fine. I don't even call me whatever
you want. But if you are choosing to be in relationship with me, what I'm asking you for is to stop
doing this. But I actually think for you, the conversation's deeper. It is you looking at your husband
and saying, I'm watching your spirit change. Yeah. I used to really like him and I used to like being around
him and now I just can't.
That's the conversation.
That's the conversation.
And can I,
she'd be okay with me saying this.
Can I tell you,
I became a, in 2010-ish,
I became a nutritional religion zealot.
I became a lunatic about nutrition stuff.
By the way, I have no training in nutrition.
I've got no degrees in nutrition.
This cool new thing called a podcast.
came out and I thought I was the smartest guy who ever lived and I took over parties I lectured friends
I turned every conversation in every room I was in into a nutritional conversation
I'm sure you were the wife of the party yeah I ruined every interaction I destroyed it man
and it was my wife taking me and saying I don't want to hear about this anymore a I think
you're wrong. And B,
you listen to a bunch of things
on the internet, and this is early, early
podcast, when I was
really crushing it and killing it.
And here's the thing.
I got to choose. Do I want to be
in relationship with my wife? Do I want to continue
to go to parties and events? Do I want people to be
around me, or do I want to be right?
And because she had the courage to have that conversation with me, it was a big
dose of cold water to my face,
and over time it really changed.
to now, this many years later,
I don't answer any question unless somebody asked me.
And then I usually say,
this is what I would do in my house
or this is what I do, right?
All that to say is that courage changed,
I mean, that courage, courageous conversation
my wife had changed me.
Or at least it planted the seeds of dramatic change.
And also he could look at you and say,
oh my gosh, screw you, I'm out of here.
You're just like every other, like whatever,
fill in the blank with massage.
just comment and he can walk out.
Do you think he loves you?
I do, yeah.
Okay.
I think he's worth you telling the truth, too.
I don't like being around you anymore because you've gotten mean.
And when you say mean things about other people, you make it my fault.
And that's not the guy I married.
And I miss you.
Yeah, I miss him a lot.
Okay.
Tell them that.
And if you need to make racist jokes or misogynist jokes that you're getting off the internet,
that if your need to do that is more important
than your wife feeling safe and loved,
then we've got bigger issues in our marriage.
But I don't think this is you.
This isn't the guy married.
Okay. Yeah.
How come you're crying?
I don't know.
I'm just a cryer.
No, that's okay.
Are you scared that he's going to walk away?
No, I don't have a fear of that.
It's almost like I feel that,
or I fear that the person that I fell in my list either is gone or never existed.
I just don't know.
Okay.
I think it's fair to put that on the table.
My guess is he's consuming media 24-7, 365 through a pair of headphones, and the ecosystem
that the algorithm serves up to him is circulating this madness and nonsense, and it's either, A, stripped out of context, right?
or it's just fueled hatred.
And that's just becoming the ecosystem.
And he is to choose, it's kind of like in the old days,
our wives would say like, hey, I don't want you around those guys.
It's kind of like, hey, I don't want you around that garbage
because it's making you a different person.
And he might say, that's always been me.
You just, like, fine, we got to deal with that then
because I don't want that guy around my kids.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Do you believe the stuff he says?
or do you believe he's just trying to echo,
he's just echoing the trash and garbage that he hears?
I don't think he really believe,
I think maybe somewhere he feels like he does,
but I think it could be a lot of what he's consuming or seeing or hearing.
He's, you know, he works in law enforcement,
and so they see and hear a lot of, you know, a lot of things.
And I think it's maybe a combination of those two things.
if you've been in law enforcement for a long time.
Yeah, somebody who loves them needs to have a hard conversation.
Yeah, I know.
Well, I wish you the best.
I hate that it's turned and I hate this is happening.
And I also know, I spend my career with law enforcement officers,
and I know that I've sat with guys whose whole beat is particular swaths of a city.
And they have a very lived experience of, quote unquote, these people,
this is what I experience every day.
It's what I do.
This is what the data says.
And I get that.
I get that. I've sat with those guys.
And that doesn't give anybody permission to make huge blanket statements,
especially that denigrate broad swaths of people.
And even beneath that,
when your wife says, hey, it's not funny.
I don't want that in the house.
To then beat up on your wife about it.
It's just sucks.
Sorry you're going through it.
I think it's time to have a hard conversation that begins with,
I miss you.
I hate this.
We come back, a man asks how he can build a relationship with his daughter without overwhelming her.
Sounds like I sent this question in. We'll be right back.
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So go out to Washington, D.C.,
and talk to Anthony.
Hey, Anthony, what's up?
Hey, John.
How you doing, man?
Doing great, brother.
How are you?
I'm doing pretty good.
I'm talking to Don Joloni, so life is good.
Awesome.
What's up?
So I'm calling about an issue.
Back when I was 18, back in 1995,
my girlfriend at the time became pregnant, with my help, of course.
Thanks for that clarification.
Yeah, no problem.
With my help, of course.
That's fantastic.
That's the best joke I heard.
day. That's awesome. And we
were both very young. She got this thing
that I may have contributed to.
Yeah. And she, we were both
very young and I'd actually just enlisted in the
Army. So I had a
I had a four-year commitment at that point.
So we decided to
give her up for adoption.
Like I said, there's a combination of factors
being so young and
having that obligation coming up.
We decided it was the best
thing to do.
So that was, like you said, 1995 and then turned around to 2018.
And she found me through, she took a 23 and me DNA test and found me.
She actually found my family first.
And my family contacted me and said, do you know anything about this?
And I said, yeah, I absolutely do.
And she then reached out to me and, you know, that started the relationship.
which has been awesome.
It's something I was dreaming about for 25 years.
And, you know, just I can't even put into words what it's been like.
The reason I'm calling, the only downside to that is I go back and forth with the situation as far as how I've just scared to death to scare her away and contact her too much.
And then I go to one side.
And I think last year, I went a full year without contacting her.
And she, of course, texted me and said, hey, what's up?
You're still alive?
Everything okay?
And I said, yeah, absolutely.
You know, I just don't want to, you know, I don't want to be martyr.
So, you know, I'm just, I'm really just looking for kind of to help build a roadmap
towards just a freaking awesome relationship with her moving forward.
I love that.
So I got two important things for you, okay?
And it's going to take some, or three important things,
and it's going to take some real significant honesty and integrity on your part, okay?
And a lot of humility, okay?
Okay.
Here's number one.
I want you to be honest with yourself about what a full-fledged relationship would look like and feel like.
I want you to see it in 3D, 4D, HD, HD, I don't know, whatever these stupid TV.
these do these. I want you to see it clearly.
In your fantasy, what would it look like?
Yeah.
You live by her. You're her dad again.
You, y'all go to breakfast once a week.
Y'all, she's over for the holidays.
Like, go all the way there.
And if it's not that, be honest with yourself that really,
I want to text you once a month.
Because the lack of clarity is going to make you nuts.
and it's going to be very confusing for her.
Yeah, well, I can tell you, John, what, I mean, what I want, I have two other kids,
and I love my kids 110%.
You know, I don't go half in.
And I want, you know, I want that full package with her.
Okay.
But I've been very careful so far to...
That's going to leave me number two, okay?
Okay.
Because I figured that's what you wanted, or you wouldn't be calling.
Yeah.
Number two is you have to, within this week, write a letter to 18-year-old you,
thanking him for being courageous.
Okay.
Because the shame is just dripping off of this call.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, there's shame at my level of maturity and, you know, discipline at that age that I,
that it wasn't a, well, we made a great decision.
I think it was perfect.
ended up with a freaking awesome family.
Okay.
And nothing, there's been, so far, there's been nothing bad.
It's been, like I said, nothing.
The only bad part is, or negative part is just trying not to screw it up or not to, you know,
ambush my opportunity for a long relationship with her.
Okay, so that leads me to number three.
And this is the simplest, yet the, I don't know, I think it can be the easiest thing in the world.
I want you to set up a phone call with her
text and say,
hey, when you have about 20 or 30 minutes,
I'd love to talk with you.
Are y'all in proximity
where y'all could meet?
No, she actually just recently moved overseas.
Okay.
So she's not in the area anymore.
Okay.
I mean, actually our first interaction
was actually a FaceTime before we met person to person.
Okay.
Is she overseas for good?
Is she on a deployment?
or will she be back?
What's the status there?
No, she was.
She lives in Puerto Rico.
They're just there, I think, probably temporarily.
Okay.
Living the island life and doing, you know,
it's something they always wanted her,
and her boyfriend always wanted to do, I think.
Okay.
So I would call her.
It's probably fairly temporarily.
And ask if y'all could set up a FaceTime or a Zoom time?
Yeah.
And then I want you to tell her,
since you found me
like a missing piece in my heart has been filled
and I have to be honest with you
I have this vision of
a pretty amazing relationship with you
but I want to honor you
and so I want you to give me a picture
of what you want this to look like
in the short term and in the long term
and let her drive
which is kind of what I've done so far.
I've kind of let her dictate things, you know,
like green light, red light, green light, red light kind of thing.
Have you got any red lights yet?
No.
Okay.
No, no, no, no, really.
Like I said, in fact, you know, I kind of put up the red light
and then contact her for a while and she comes back at me.
Why'd you do that?
Actually, for the first time, I missed her birthday.
And when I say missed, I just, I'd always remembered it in my mind,
even if I didn't talk to anybody about it.
I just knew that that was her birthday.
And I actually missed it.
And I, you know, I was just picked off of myself.
Okay, that's shame.
That's shame.
Yeah.
And so as a dad, we go to the next right thing.
We call that next day and be like, dude, I suck.
I completely miss your birthday.
And I'm the worst.
Check your mailbox.
You get what I'm saying?
Like I want you to
And that's what a lot of that shame comes
Is all the way back to 18 year old you as much as you think you've processed
To write that kid a letter and tell him thank you
And then
Dad's mess up man we mess up
And we compound it by silence and we compound it by weight
Don't do don't compound it
You're gonna mess up you're gonna say the wrong thing or whatever
But it's just making the next phone call
And I kind of knew that too in the back of my mind
It's like dude what are you doing? Why are you not calling her?
Why are you doing this?
and it was, you know, it's like the devil and the angel on one side of its shoulder and the other.
It's like, what, you know?
Yeah.
But I'll call her and let her give you a roadmap and then follow that roadmap to a T.
Okay.
And if she says, I'll take it all, be like, cool, I'm booking a plane ticket,
and me and my wife are coming down to, coming down to Puerto Rico.
Yeah.
I'm serious.
Yeah.
I'd love to do it.
Yeah, that'd be awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that's
I'm totally, I can totally do that.
What you have to be willing to do is to have your heartbroken
in pursuit of her.
Right.
Yeah, and I just kind of have to remind myself that I,
you know, I signed her
my rights away 25, well, 30 years ago now.
You know, and I can't expect, I can't expect anything.
And I've always kind of had that in the back of my mind like,
dude, you can't have any expectations.
Yeah, but she, she, she, she, she, she, she blew up that story.
Yeah.
She called you and said, hey, I miss, I want to talk to you. I miss you.
Yeah. She has it every turn. She really has.
Okay, so stop telling yourself that's the same old story.
Yeah.
You gave up parental rights from, from zero to 18. You did.
Mm-hmm.
And you gave her, you gave your child to an amazing family, and they did a great job.
Yeah.
Period.
Now there's two adults that don't have much of a relationship,
but they've got some deep ties.
And she has said, I'd love to get to know you.
And you're like, wow, man, I missed the birthday.
Crap, I'm just going to take a year off.
Like, right?
Nah, I'm going to go all in.
And if you have a dream about, I would talk to your biological,
I mean, you're the two kids that you consider, quote, unquote, my kids now
and let them know, hey, I've got this dream of all three of us.
getting together. I know it's going to be weird for you guys because this is a 25 year old
you've never met, but in my head, that would make my heart feel complete.
Yeah. All right, dad. Whatever, dad. Okay, dad. Right, whatever. That's pretty much what I've gotten to.
Yeah. And then you be declared about saying out loud, hey, y'all don't know each other.
This is, my heart feels full right now and complete right now. And let that be that. And there comes a day
when she says, hey, I don't want to talk to you anymore.
I'm going to risk being heartbroken on that day.
I'm going to risk a bunch of amazing moments
and getting to know somebody
and making a brand new relationship with somebody.
I'm going to risk all of the beauty of that
for a potential red light down the road
that is a forever red light.
I don't want you in my life anymore.
I don't like you anymore, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
But let her give you the roadmap and then follow that sucker to a T.
And if she says it's all green lights,
then me and you and your wife are going to Puerto Rico this Christmas.
That would be awesome.
Are you going to Puerto Rico for spring break?
That'd be rad.
But if she says, let's, let's, I want to build this thing from the floor up, then, man,
get on your, get on your builder's hat and let's start cranking it.
It'd be amazing.
But thank you for being courageous and brave when you were 18.
And thank you for being honorable and not trying to mess stuff up over the next 18, 20 years.
And thank you for having the courage to call and say,
man, there's just been that whole.
my heart for a long time and that courageous young girl is now an adult and she reached out and
I feel vulnerable and exposed all over again and I'm going to be a true father, a true man.
I'm going to head right into that discomfort because that that that's where the tension is
where the connection is going to be. Thanks for a call, brother. I can't wait to hear what happens,
man. It's awesome. I love these reunification stories, man. They're the best. We come
back, a man is asking, should he buy a home together with his future in love?
Oh, man, we'll be right back.
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All right, let's go, let's stay here in Nashville. Awesome. Let's stay here in Nashville and talk
to Thomas. What's up, Thomas? Hey, Dr. John. How are you doing? I'm good, brother. How are
you, man? Man, I'm swell. I'm swell. Excellent. What's up? All right. Well,
I'm in the market for purchase. I'm in the market for purchase. I'm in the market for purchase
my first home and my question is, do I buy my own house or do I invest into an intergenerational home
with my future in-laws? You already know the answer to this question. Where are you calling me?
You know? I'm torn. I'm really, really torn.
Over what?
Well, having your own home with your new wife or having her parents be your new parents for the rest of your life?
Well, the way, you know, great question.
I can already see us potentially taking care of them in the future.
They are wildly close, and I came up in a family where I am wildly distant.
So this is all new for me.
Now, it's a family full of love, great energy and connectedness,
and I'm slowly learning how to receive.
so but this notion was brought up in order to you know we're seeing a lot of benefits in it name them
okay the splits of the cost to live in a nicer house community location to be close to family and
be able to lean on each other um it's you know we potentially may expand our family one day and having that
support right at home could be nice.
And I think for context, the intergenerational home would be hopefully enough for the two
families to coexist pretty well with more of like a basement-style apartment.
Who would live in the basement?
That's a great question.
So these are kind of the things we're bouncing off of each other.
And as of right now...
Take take this from me with all my guts.
Yep.
Do not co-buy a house with your future in-laws.
Please, God Almighty.
Okay.
Now, if your in-laws want to buy a house and you and your future wife want to rent from them
with the intent of buying the house at an incredibly discounted rate one day, great.
But this is a recipe for everybody hating everybody when it's all over.
because here's the thing
every weekend off
if you lose a job
if you take an income cut
if you have a kid
and suddenly your father-in-law
thinks things are hilarious
then you don't want those kind of jokes around your kid
you are stuck
man legally with a contract on a house
this binds you in a way
that doesn't allow your relationship
to be what it actually could be
it forces you into a business arrangement
a legal business arrangement
if you're a way
oh sorry no go ahead
is there a way that
as opposed to going in on the contract with them
to rent it from them
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Okay.
They buy this house and you and your fiancé are going to rent the basement apartment for the next two years.
Sign a lease if you want to.
In fact, I would a thousand percent recommend you'll sign a lease.
Okay.
Because here's the thing.
What you don't know yet is, is this close-knit family, somebody's running lead here on this close-knit family.
And if you geographically interpret.
into this world, then you are subject to that too.
And what I want you to do is establish your roots.
Establish your own tent pole, even if it's under the same tent.
Otherwise, you will always be the second man in your new wife's life.
Always.
Well, dad says we should.
Yeah.
Dad says we've been going out too much and we need to be home with the kids more.
Sure.
Mom says we're not coming to, we're going to come into dinner enough.
Yeah.
Dad says we need to go to his church and we need to stop going to the, like,
I mean, you're just setting yourself up for chaos upon chaos upon chaos.
And it's a, it's a path towards resentment.
Have you seen this work out before?
Never, never.
Okay.
Zero percent.
I've never seen it.
I'm sure it does.
And to be honest, my bias is the nature of my job is I only get the call.
when it doesn't work out, so maybe it does.
Yeah, but I have called in for the wisdom.
I have never seen this work well.
Interesting. Okay.
What do you think, what do you, like, paint me your picture?
Well, it's a, it's a very tight family.
But what does that mean?
It means we're hanging out every weekend.
We're all into the same things.
We love eating together as many times a week as we can.
We especially love the holidays and going on vacations together.
I mean, I'm surrounded by love.
I never really got to experience.
And I guess I am soaked into a little bit of the magic.
Now, for a little bit of context, they've been in their Nashville natives
and have basically paid off their house that has, you know,
quadrupled and they were planning on putting the major down payment on this house in which I would
then take over the remaining balance versus what I'm capable of doing right now would be move out
to outside the city and kind of take my partner away from her family which kind of complicates
the dynamic we currently have well but number one that's a little bit dramatic taking her quote
unquote away. I mean, what, 30, 45 minutes?
Yeah. Traffic can be bad sometimes, but yeah.
Yeah, that's not a way. Will it be different?
Yes. And should y'all establish a world
where y'all aren't having every meal together all the time
in your brand new marriage? Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely. And will that feel weird for her? How old is she?
She's 28.
And she still lives with them and has meals with them
and every...
No, we live independently.
Okay.
Of them.
Okay.
How far away do you all live now?
Four or five miles.
Okay.
Yeah, so we're, she's been,
my partner's been solely independent for a while.
Okay.
And it's proven to be able to.
We're both on our feet very well
and don't necessarily lean on them for support
other than just enjoyment.
Okay.
So...
And they're also the same.
way as far as just beyond generous and don't really don't offer more than they need to.
It's more or less if you need to borrow a car, please take it kind of thing.
Okay.
But if you all call and say, hey, we're not coming out.
We're just going to stay in tonight.
They're all good with that.
Oh, my goodness.
You just, it's kind of mind-blowing how cool they are with that.
Okay.
And how often that actually does happen in our life day to day.
If we're having a bad day and we had plans to have dinner and it didn't work out, I don't, I've never felt like there was any resentment.
So is that a temporary thing?
Well, it's amazing.
It is, it happens all the time.
And again, my bias is the ones that call me are the ones where it's sideways.
My parents are like that.
They're pretty awesome.
And my in-laws are like that.
Cool.
So I get that and that that happens.
That's fantastic.
When it comes down to the legal mess, I would much prefer.
they to make sell their home
and make a humongous cash donation
to her to their daughter.
Sure.
And their daughter choose to buy a house
with her new husband.
And please don't buy a house with her
until y'all marry.
That just makes a whole other level of complication.
Oh, absolutely.
It's part of the...
But y'all buy a house
and then give your in-laws
in writing free rent forever
in the basement apartment.
Incredible.
Or,
have them buy the house
and you all sign a two-year lease
to rent from them
and they can rent to you below market value
they can rent to you for whatever
with the intent that you and your new wife
are saving up to buy your own place
or maybe one day you'll buy this place from them
but it just puts one name on the thing
because here's what I don't want to happen
I don't want your father-in-law to sign this thing
you're covering the rest of the note
and he has a stroke next week
or you lose your job
job and suddenly, hey, you need to be out, what are you doing here at the tape?
Dinner tape, right? And it just changes every meal when somebody's over another person.
Very good point. And so here's the line I would use. I really want to give you the privilege of
just being my father-in-law and I want the privilege of just being your son-in-law and not also your
business partner and not also your roommate. But I do want to live together. So can I rent this place from
you and just put it in your name?
I love that man
that's really helpful
and kind of answered
a lot of my questions
and brought some things
to light that I wasn't even considering
so incredible
this is the best way forward
for you all to
keep this amazing relationship
that y'all have
it's awesome
it's so cool dude
and apologize for poking questions
usually people call my show
and they've got
relationship challenges
the fact that y'all don't
amazing
but man I would just keep it
as simple as
possible so that y'all can keep your relationship as amazing as amazing as possible.
Thanks a call, homie. We'll be right back.
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All right, we are back.
Kelly, I just saw your shirt.
Dude, that's hilarious.
That's funny.
Oh, yeah, I bought this.
So for those that don't know,
this is, we're still before Christmas,
for a couple weeks before Christmas.
And I'm still in the whole knee brace
and on the crutches on the whole nine yards.
And it's a gingerbread man and his legs broken.
And it says, have you tried icing it?
That's a funny shirt.
I know.
I saw it.
I was like, I've got to have that.
So.
I needed a good, just absurdly lame,
that joke today. Good job. All right, go for it.
All right. We have an am I the problem?
And this is from an anonymous caller,
or listener, writer, whatever.
And she writes,
this is actually sorry, this is a guy.
He says,
Am I the problem for having a hard time trusting my girlfriend
sometimes because she tends to say little white lies
to make herself not look so bad?
For example, she will say she's 15 minutes
away from a party that she was supposed to take
food to, but in reality,
she's 20 minutes away. Or she'll
exaggerate when she's telling the story about why she's late. I know they are little things,
but it makes me wonder if it is so easy for her to lie about that, what other things is she or
would she lie about? I just want to reframe that question or ask the question beneath that
question. Is it weird that I'm starting to not trust the person that lies all the time?
No, no, you're not the problem. The problem here is keeping that secret. Or the problem is
start calling it out. I'm going to be here. I'll be there in 15 minutes and you're in the car and you
say the GPS says 23 minutes and then calling the person back or texting back saying, I mean 23
minutes. It's the little things, man. It's the little things. And yes, you were right. If people will
lie about little things, they will lie about big things. That's just the way the world works.
And so, no, you're not crazy for beginning to wonder, what else can I not trust here?
And I'd be willing to bet money that there's a couple of big things out there that you
you're like, ah, it doesn't ring true to me.
And that's why you're writing in here.
But no, you're not the problem.
The problem is you're dating somebody
who doesn't tell the truth about little things,
which means they have the capability
to not tell the truth about big things.
Love you guys. Bye.
