The Zach Nichols Podcast - Mother's Day Special with Zach's Mom! | ZNP EP. 166

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

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Hi, I'm Chris. I'm Zach's mom and I just came in today to talk a little bit about Zach and a few of his stories and have a few laughs. You guys ready? This is my favorite guest of all time. It's going to probably get funny. Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. I'm here with the big fetichini. So, guys.

But more importantly, for Mother's Day special, we brought my mom, Kristen Nichols into the house. You can't hear the round of the pause, but they're going crazy crazy right now. There's a pause in the head. They're going nuts right now. And Pierre wanted to have my mom on the podcast for a long time. Years, multiple years. Because I sit here and I'm embarrassed him week after week. So I'm sure he's got a stack of questions.

And actually, I'll just get started. So when I asked my mom to come on the podcast, my mom said, why, what do I have to talk about? I said, I think Pierre wants you to tell embarrassing stories. And she said, oh, like when you pooped your pants when you were 12. Exactly. Things like that. You weren't 12. We weren't living at that house.

I did the math. I was eight. Yeah. I was eight years old and I pooped my pants on my bike. If you haven't pooped your pants, you really haven't had struggle in your life. Let's just be honest. Let's just be 100% honest. No.

First of all, the shades come off for you because there's nothing here to criticize, nothing to hide from. We're here for three reasons. The L's, okay? It's going to be a hallmark movie in here. We're here to learn. We're going to learn about both you and Zach from the source. We're here to laugh, of course.

And we're here to love because there's a big part of this podcast for me is showing appreciation for what people give to the world. And, you know, I admire you in so many ways. And I'm going to continue to shower you with love and you're going to love on you. And it's all going to be great. Live, laugh, love. So thank you so much for being here. Do you want to start or should I get it turning? Well, I just have a question, mom.

When's the last time I called you mommy? Last year. There is relevance. Oh, last year. No, for real. There's relevance here. Well, I have, when I get a new Bible, the kids I always had them sign it, right? And he, one of the ones, and he was probably at least, if not, high school, middle school, and he wrote Mommy in there.

Pierre called his mom, Mommy today. He calls her. He had to say, hey, mommy. So that is the truth. I really feel like. Oh, that's sweet. Thank you. Thank you.

Get a round of applause for me and my mom. No, I think there is something very sweet and just like innocent about letting your mother know that she's always still your mom. So I feel like I'm a pretty aggressive macho person. But to her, I'll always be her baby son. So I want her to know that. I'm actually the oldest, just the least mature. The only one besides my 15 turning 16 year old sister, my brother Blake is engaged with kids. my brother Ryan's engaged to be married this year.

So yeah, just me. Just me. But I do make sure, like my mom never asked for anything, you know, from us, except for be good kids and try to do right by the world. So I'm the type of person if my mom calls for anything, like, you know, jump. I say how high and I know he's the same way. So, yeah, I'm a mama's boy. Always have been.

But yeah, do you have any more of the questions or should I? No, go. Fire him off. Let's go. All right. First of all, thanks for being here. Now, Champs Pub in Brighton, it's a legendary space for all those who call Brighton home. My mom knows where this is going.

We'll call it a legendary place for Brighton for over the century, and you're famously still on the wall of that establishment. Never. I've seen you take a sip of Bailey's when I was. The one. He's counting sips over there. But that's the only time I've ever seen my mom have a sip of alcohol was at a, it was a Christmas at Uncle Ronnie's house. Oh, I really needed it. Yes.

I got an N64 that Christmas. That's why I remember that. Wow, that's iconic. I don't even think dad was having some, but you said, let me try a sip of that. And you were like, yeah, I like the Bayleys, but you can taste the alcohol. Yep. So that was the only time I was seen my mom used to make homemade Bailey's. Yeah, she called me.

A little Polish woman. Well, Bailey's actually looks good. It looks like a milkshake. So I get that. I get that part. It looks good. But talk about that picture and really just your athletic background. Like, did you like athletics growing up?

And I guess I have a follow-up question. But yeah, were you an athlete growing up? And where did you grow up? Well, first of all, the picture is from an indoor soccer team. So that's the picture that's on the wall at champs. So that anyone that's wondering. Adult. It wasn't when I was a child.

Oh, it was an adult. I had a children. Oh. That's from a reg league. Yeah. It makes it even better. It was an old lady soccer team. They were sponsored by.

Yeah, our sponsor was champs. That's so good. We used to do karaoke too there. So that makes, that actually makes my question, my questions going forward even crazier because you made time to do that. So just talk about what's your athletic background. Like did you grow up playing sports? Yes. I had three brothers.

And, yeah, we played sports. And I played sports through high school. I was a cheerleader, but cheerleading was a little bit different back when I was. was in high school, but I played basketball. I played softball. And I was a gymnast. All right. Just like Beanie. Yeah. Just like it takes after me. She does. That's amazing. So like, I want to know, like having gone through sports and obviously having brothers now, like, is there anything about like athletics that made you parent in a certain way? Because if I know this correctly, what is it? Four out of five kids have scholarships? Is that the, is that the, is that the staff? Three. Three of the kids. Kate was offered a scholarship, I thought, for volleyball, or was she just offered a spot on the team? I don't think so. I don't think, I'm not sure. I don't remember that. Three out of five ain't bad. No, right. Yeah. So how did that kind of, you know, your background and how? Well, I think it was their father that influenced them in that respect more than I was. These very competitive. Everything in our family's competitive. Right. Yeah. I tell Pierre, he would, he always said, you think your dad would,

have ever been okay with me dating Jill. And I said, no, he wouldn't at all. He would have made funny you relentlessly. He does everybody be there. No, that being said, I said, you wouldn't have made it. Sounds like someone I know. I said, you wouldn't have made it through one of our family vacations, because every morning starts with a competitive long distance run. And if you don't wake up for that run, you are not allowed to participate in family activities the rest of the day. So when Jackson and Bennett came on our vacation, they decided not to. to wake up and my dad woke him up by racking a shotgun. Yeah.

Or he likes to vacuum and beat against the door while he's vacuuming. That's how he wakes him up too. And that's, I'm sorry, did I get you there? That was every week. You guys up? Yeah, that was every weekend at about 7.30 growing up. If you were asleep past eight in our house, you got woke up.

Yeah, and you knew this going into the marriage that he was this type of personality. Just like just demanding excellence, even on vacation. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's incredible. But he's funny. So that was important. Yeah, no, I, of course.

So for me, like I said, all of the, we all have two dreams in life the way that I see at family people. I think we have a professional dream and we have a family dream. You know, it seems as though, you know, you have that family dream. You have the five kids. They're all married, all college educated, all doing great. All have families. Just under 20 grandkids.

Yeah, that's a round of applause, please. A lot of applause. What? Did you have any other dream like outside of professional? Is there something you wanted to do or wanted to be just like if you had a, you know, the wildest dream that could imagine? Did you have one? You know, I didn't go into marriage thinking, I'm going to have five kids at all. But we got pregnant right away and I lost that baby. So then after that, after I lost that baby, then there was like this.

fervor I have to have a baby. You know, it wasn't anything I really thought about until that happened. And so then we had Kate. And then we had another miscarriage and I'm like, this, like this, like, okay, now this that would be more my competitive thought. Like that's how I think. Okay, now I'm really going to do this. And I did.

And after we had Zach, Bruce is like, we're done. We got a girl and a boy. And I said, yeah, I don't feel done. And then. Sounds like another person. I know. Sounds like another person that I know. Yeah. So then without even thinking about it, then one day I said, and Bruce is still deciding. And then I said, well, this isn't out of your hands. We're pregnant. And he's like, okay.

And then after Allie was born, I'm like, we have to have an even number because we're going to go to Cedar Point. Of course. Right? And you can't have an odd number. So I talked him into another and we had Gillian. and then after that Daniel just came there was no thinking no talking we were we were pregnant with Daniel and then Bruce said I don't want to hear anymore that

got to have an even number he said we'll take a friend yeah and so that was that he actually told the story this weekend and said that normally when you go to get a vasectomy they make the wife sign off on it too and the doctor said well normally your wife has a sign off on it and he goes

listen And I got four live children at home, one on the way. And they go, yeah, come on back. You're good. You're good. So, yeah, so for you, was it always just family, motherhood? Or did you have any other? Well, I do have a college degree, and I did work in the industry for a while.

And then when we got pregnant with Kate, I kept thinking, oh, I got to go back to work. I was actually at the time making a lot more money than my husband was. And I kept telling them, oh, I'll be back. I'll be back. And then they called me after like two months. I'm like, yeah, no, not really coming. I'm good. I'm all sad.

And so then finally, they called me a few times and then finally, when Kate was six months old, they said, I said, yeah, I'm not coming back. Yeah. And that was a hard decision. It was a hard decision for me. And it was big pressure for Bruce because, you know, I did make. a lot of money. I worked for General Motors. And I made good money for our age and back then and everything. But it wasn't that important to me. I mean, it seems like you get a great decision.

You focus on raising the family. They're all successful. I have a little speech before my next questions. How did you get all this time? You know, the Pistons game. I was so excited. I'm telling you, I've been very excited about this guest. Okay. I know. He actually, over a year ago, was like, dude, have your mom and dad on the podcast. I said, my dad will sit here and answer, give you yes and knows. Yeah. Or he'll tell you some wild goose stories that aren't even true. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the goose. No, but so look, that concludes the free preview of the Zach Nichols podcast. So go to Patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk. Go do it now.