This Is Us, The Fifth Wheel, Just Showed One of My Worst Fears

Jesus Christ, what an emotional episode, This is Us, The Fifth Wheel, was.  In case you missed Season 2’s, episode 11, stop, go watch it and then come back to this.  This is Us has got to be America’s favorite show.  The writers, the actors, the producers and directors, everyone has touched all of America.  We can all relate and it can be jarring to feel like you’re watching yourself or a family member on tv.  I cried so much during this episode because it gave me all the feels.

I could relate as a parent, as a child, as a mom, as a daughter, as a sibling, as an in-law.

These writers are magic and I want what they have when they brainstorm these magnificent story lines!

So I’m not going to spell out the entire episode here because you can find that on 100 other sites.  I’m going to talk about the therapy session and how they just showed one of my worst fears on tv.  The Pearsons, three adult kids and their mom in therapy exploding with so much raw emotion.  Kevin obviously is the Fifth wheel.  Poor kid, didn’t seem to feel as loved as the other two.  And what Randall said at the end of the episode? Basically that everyone has their own view of how their childhood was and his perception was very real to him.  He wasn’t going to take away from that.  How I wish more people accepted this truth, that perception is reality to each of us.  They all had the same parents, but viewed their childhood so differently.

3 kids and 2 parents.  How can one of them not feel left out?  I only have 2 kids and even with 2 I feel like when we all get older, one of my kids, if not both, will claim that I loved the other more.  They will have horrible memories of their childhood, because sometimes we just focus on the bad and forget the good.  Sweet baby Jesus, please don’t let that happen.  My son actually saw the episode with me, he hugged me as I cried.  All while I thought, will we end up like that? It’s normal for families to have issues but as a mom, I know I’m not alone when I pray that i’m doing this whole parenting thing right.

I ask myself, am I raising them the best way, showing them enough love, attention and care?

As parents we ask ourselves, what are we missing?  Am I doing this right?  On the show, Rebecca was a great mom right?  How many of you gasped when she said to Kevin that Randall was just easier to love? I sure did, but at the same time, I was like holy moly, she’s right?! The way I looked at it was sometimes children are easier to love on than others.  She said Kevin’s skin recoiled when she touched him.  Do you have a child that loves to cuddle while another just pushes you away?  And then will that kid remember at 25, “My mom never really hugged me”… or vice versa?  I did not take Rebecca’s comment to mean she did have a favorite.  I think a mom’s relationship with each of her children is unique since we’re all individuals so different from one another.  And sometimes we think we’re doing the right thing, going to get ice cream all the time (ehem, ehem) but are we creating a bad habit?  Who knows?!

The truth is that sometimes, the smallest things will make an impact on our child’s future and we have to be cognizant of that. We just don’t always know what that thing is.

What I take away from this episode is to be more present, more aware and more in tune with each of my individual little people.  I can only do my best, and hope that they’d be open to talking about it, like the Pearson’s, now as we’re going through it and when they grow up.  I’m so excited to see what the rest of this season brings to us.  Looking forward to some enlightenment and insight into Rebecca’s parenting, the triplets relationships with one another and how their relationships with their parents, impacted their entire way of being. Thank you NBC for this amazing show! What was your biggest takeaway of this episode?