Speaker 1: Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Hileco. As parents and parenting writers, we can't
Speaker 1: help but see everything through a parenting lens. But as
Speaker 1: our kids have become adults, we find ourselves more interested
Speaker 1: in getting caught up on movies and streaming than I'm
Speaker 1: going over the same parenting topics over and over.
Speaker 2: So since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about what we're watching, what we
Speaker 2: thought about it, and maybe what we can learn from it,
Speaker 2: if only what not to do. Watch and listen along,
Speaker 2: and let's all make like we're doing something important for
Speaker 2: our families. Each Wednesday we bring you our thoughts on
Speaker 2: a newer entertainment property, and for this week of August eleventh,
Speaker 2: we're continuing with The Gilded Age, Season three, Episode four,
Speaker 2: Marriage is a gambleh. As we said this followed on
Speaker 2: love is Never easy last week, and it's not especially
Speaker 2: love and marriage are a struggle for yes, everyone involved.
Speaker 1: In a romantic comedy. No I did did like for perspective,
Speaker 1: and I suppose this is a parenting tip in some way.
Speaker 1: Uh Marian pointing out that their friend who married for
Speaker 1: love it didn't work out, and her friend who their
Speaker 1: friends who married as a business transaction are doing quite well.
Speaker 1: So you can't ever say, I mean, certainly, I think
Speaker 1: we think the person Gladys was in love with would
Speaker 1: not have lasted very well, right, And so sometimes, you
Speaker 1: know what, you just got to.
Speaker 2: Go along with it, even though you don't want to
Speaker 2: because you don't want to show your mother that you
Speaker 2: are That's true.
Speaker 1: Oh, there was very much that element, isn't there. Don't
Speaker 1: want to give her the satisfaction, but you know, needther
Speaker 1: you nor your father can figure out anything else to
Speaker 1: do so.
Speaker 2: Right, so it's kind of game over for Gladys, even
Speaker 2: though she takes to her room for an indeterminate amount
Speaker 2: of time that might have been a few weeks unclear.
Speaker 2: In the you know, they make it certainly a cliffhanger
Speaker 2: of will she or won't she show up at the church.
Speaker 2: I knew that she would. I mean, we've seen pictures
Speaker 2: like I think it was. I feel like it was
Speaker 2: in the trailer.
Speaker 1: Maybe it wasn't, I don't know, but we're watching it
Speaker 1: a little behind.
Speaker 2: We are watching very.
Speaker 1: Hard to be on social media without seeing pictures of yes,
Speaker 1: things that have happened recently.
Speaker 2: Yes, so so, yes, she as I had assumed she would,
Speaker 2: showed up, cried her way down the aisle, with which
Speaker 2: maybe people couldn't see behind her veil unclear. I do
Speaker 2: believe that the Duke's nasty sister gotta gotta look at
Speaker 2: her crying. So that was that was sad. So yeah,
Speaker 2: we had we had two two sisters up here. We
Speaker 2: had Bertha's sister Monica.
Speaker 1: Both unwanted, yes, unwelcome, and yet there they were.
Speaker 2: Yes, Monica played by Merrit Weaver. She was. She was
Speaker 2: a lot of.
Speaker 1: Fun costume in the right period. I don't see her
Speaker 1: in historical things very often.
Speaker 2: Yes, And Bertha had to engineer the destruction of the
Speaker 2: dress she was wearing so she wouldn't wear it to
Speaker 2: the wedding. Oh just oops, this coffee. I don't know
Speaker 2: how it's spilled.
Speaker 1: Just appreciate for a moment how hard Bertha works. We
Speaker 1: don't always approve of what she works towards. But she, uh,
Speaker 1: she's a busy girl. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: She is. And she wasn't going to let her sister's
Speaker 2: ugly dress. And she tells George it would have been
Speaker 2: unkind to let her wear the dress.
Speaker 1: With all the other things she has to worry about,
Speaker 1: is my daughter gonna bail on this marriage and and
Speaker 1: humiliate me in front of all of society, she still
Speaker 1: has time to think of her sister. Yep, it's kind
Speaker 1: of Galabertha.
Speaker 2: What a lovely lady.
Speaker 1: Who invited the former help who's married to the old dude.
Speaker 2: I know. I don't know how she.
Speaker 1: Because he was just there making observations like nice to
Speaker 1: see you, actress whose name I don't remember, right, but
Speaker 1: I remember you, and glad you get another episode? But
Speaker 1: why would I would think Bertha would do everything in
Speaker 1: her power to keep that woman away from him, unless
Speaker 1: she wants to be like, look at me, Yeah I did, yeah,
Speaker 1: uh huh.
Speaker 2: And and she had to kind of swallow her work,
Speaker 2: like I've never even met this sister, and missus Fish
Speaker 2: is like, oh, how would you have met her? No reason?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oops, yeah, gotta be more careful yourself there, sister. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, the next in addition to whatever challenge is Gladys
Speaker 1: face is the next challenge. Romantic challenge will be uh,
Speaker 1: Larry selling Mary into his mother.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: She sort of knows because she let her be the bridesmaid,
Speaker 1: or it was just.
Speaker 2: Well he didn't. He didn't push her as the bridesmaid
Speaker 2: because he wants to be with her.
Speaker 1: Just because she's a neighbor and it's convenient.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she'll fit there.
Speaker 1: I gotta think that brother's gonna have something to say
Speaker 1: about this. But oh yeah, absolutely, you know who knows.
Speaker 1: Maybe she got she got the one, she got this
Speaker 1: one thing done. Does she want to have I don't know.
Speaker 1: She probably will need Larry to marry somebody with money
Speaker 1: to solve their money problems.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Larry, let's just no, just made a bundle
Speaker 2: from Jack's clock. So Jack got half, but together they
Speaker 2: got they each got three hundred dollars, which.
Speaker 1: Larry essentially for doing nothing but having a name that
Speaker 1: they could attach, that.
Speaker 2: They could set up meetings.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah, and you didn't get it man, Although
Speaker 1: Jack is like, this is more money than I've ever
Speaker 1: imagined having in my life. So he's not upset.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't tell me.
Speaker 1: He hasn't just put this under his mattress in this
Speaker 1: little Footman Garrett.
Speaker 2: Yes, because the drinks with broad substack informs me that
Speaker 2: this three hundred thousand is worth in today's dollars, well
Speaker 2: over eleven million dollars. Yeah, so, Jack, I mean it's
Speaker 2: it's like abstract at that point to him, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Don't let Oscar talk in, don't let Oscar have it.
Speaker 1: Don't let Oscar know there's that much money in the house. No,
Speaker 1: don't let Agnes know there's that much money in the house.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, she's a bottomatic with living under the uh, the
Speaker 1: sponsorship of her.
Speaker 2: Sister, right, who, as we as we knew what happened,
Speaker 2: uh invited a woman into the house to perform a seance.
Speaker 2: Andrea Martin, Hello.
Speaker 1: What's it? Oh my god? Did I not notice it?
Speaker 1: Andria Martin? Yeah, oh shoot, I'm gonna have to go
Speaker 1: watch that scene again.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: But what you have a seance to to communicate with
Speaker 1: your husband, who was a religious individual. I don't think
Speaker 1: he would have approved of this.
Speaker 2: I don't think so either, although he was just a
Speaker 2: very agreeable person, especially where Ada came.
Speaker 1: This is the work of the devil. But I can
Speaker 1: at least talk to her, you know, and.
Speaker 2: Be fine, My poor wife, I just.
Speaker 1: Picking at your sister for buying a dress and then
Speaker 1: you're spending your money on this.
Speaker 2: Yes, and also like, I don't think most seances are
Speaker 2: conducted in at like eleven o'clock in the morning drink
Speaker 2: because Agnes was like, oh, I'll be home by lunch,
Speaker 2: and Ada is like, okay, great, that will give me
Speaker 2: enough time to fit in my seance while you're gone. No,
Speaker 2: I won't.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh. We had some more good times in Newport
Speaker 1: with Peggy and her family.
Speaker 2: And I forget his name, hot doctor his family.
Speaker 1: Lusha was shod just giving the let's see, who is
Speaker 1: she the equivalent of on the She's she's sort of
Speaker 1: sort of got some Agnes vibes. Yes, very disapproving and
Speaker 1: sarcastic and snobby, snobby, very snobby and not going to
Speaker 1: approve of Peggy and her son. I don't believe no,
Speaker 1: am I hallucinating Or was there a story in the
Speaker 1: first season where Pegy was married and had a child
Speaker 1: and then her dad got rid of the child. Somehow
Speaker 1: her dad told her the kid was dead.
Speaker 2: And disappeared her from the guy and somehow ended the marriage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the kid wasn't dead, but then he
Speaker 1: did die subsequently die. Yes, So there was this whole scandal,
Speaker 1: which I gotta think Lucia Shod is going to turn
Speaker 1: up at some point, right, would there not be a
Speaker 1: chance of them?
Speaker 2: Well, I think this all happened in Philadelphia, and the
Speaker 2: dad worked very hard.
Speaker 1: To I feel like has people on a retainer to
Speaker 1: go check out individuals who show an interest in her son.
Speaker 1: I want to complete dossier, send the Pinkerton agents out. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I unless we've just forgotten that part of season one
Speaker 1: and we're not going to ever talk about it, which
Speaker 1: is also possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think that though.
Speaker 1: A different way with that character.
Speaker 2: Never mind, I think the former husband might also be
Speaker 2: dead at this point.
Speaker 1: Oh, speaking of former spouses. Yes, miss the chef's wife
Speaker 1: finally dies, So you're gonna propose to missus Bruce, And
Speaker 1: she's like, I have a husband that.
Speaker 2: Won't work for me. I'm sorry to say, Ah, she
Speaker 2: has a husband who's in an asylum. Yes, she doesn't
Speaker 2: want to abandon him and his in his illness.
Speaker 1: So they will just one presumes, just go on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, eventually he'll they just conveniently die.
Speaker 1: I suppose neither of them are getting any younger, though
Speaker 1: the chef doesn't look like he's got that long. But
Speaker 1: still it was a surprising little scene there between the
Speaker 1: two of them. But I'm not sure even if it
Speaker 1: is your mother's ring, I'm not sure about giving your
Speaker 1: next wife the same rings that your wife that here the.
Speaker 2: Former wife a little greedy.
Speaker 1: Yes, if it's in the family. Probably the rich people
Speaker 1: do it all the time. Yeah, it's not like you
Speaker 1: can go out and buy another one, right, so.
Speaker 2: Or take it down to the.
Speaker 1: Downstairs action in this, yes, this one. And who do
Speaker 1: we think was selling secrets to the newspapers?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to think it was somebody, so, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not above it's not out of the question that
Speaker 1: it might be uh Bertha, it's.
Speaker 2: Right, But then it went too far, you know, and
Speaker 2: she didn't approve of it any any longer. But I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't realise one of the servants, well.
Speaker 2: Maybe Adelaide, I don't. I don't trust that one.
Speaker 1: She's off to England now temporarily.
Speaker 2: And she might be mad about that because she's off
Speaker 2: to England to train her replacement and then get out.
Speaker 1: So I take a boat act all by yourself, yeah,
Speaker 1: or else just be put out to service to somebody
Speaker 1: else in England.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Yeah, but would be I.
Speaker 1: Would think it'd be exciting for her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, right.
Speaker 1: Leave all her friends and stuff. That's kind of think
Speaker 1: And I don't think Gladys is we're a real good
Speaker 1: time for a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if Bertha's instruction to her marrying daughter
Speaker 1: is better than missus Bridgington's instruction to her first daughter
Speaker 1: to marry, which was declared to be unsatisfactory.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like bas.
Speaker 1: More down to earth. Yes, might have just given some
Speaker 1: uh some slightly more graphic depiction.
Speaker 2: Right, Maybe that's why birth, That why Gladys was in
Speaker 2: her room for a couple of weeks without wanting to
Speaker 2: come out. You know, she's like, hold on, this is
Speaker 2: really too much now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but as Hector says romantically, it will be embarrassing
Speaker 1: for us both. But other people have survived.
Speaker 2: Right, and let's just get it over with his basic plan.
Speaker 1: Which honestly not a bad idea. You don't want to
Speaker 1: you don't want to be just like worrying about it
Speaker 1: suspicious and then it becomes a whole big thing. So
Speaker 1: just you know, we're on a boat. Yes, that's true,
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I suppose the parenting tip here
Speaker 1: is do not marry your child to be a person
Speaker 1: they do not want to marry.
Speaker 2: But Bertha is not listening to us, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Is fairly convinced that this is the way to give
Speaker 1: her child a meaningful life, and she is just possibly deluded,
Speaker 1: but she is doing it theoretically with loving intent, right,
Speaker 1: But I don't think it's going to go so well,
Speaker 1: we'll see, you never know.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, I watched a little trailer for the remaining episodes,
Speaker 2: and the sister at one point the Duke's yeah. At
Speaker 2: one point, the Duke says to her something like, you know, well,
Speaker 2: it was your idea for me to marry a Yankee
Speaker 2: heiress to you know, save their home or whatever, and
Speaker 2: she says, well, I didn't think you'd bring her back,
Speaker 2: basically like, I didn't even think i'd have to interact
Speaker 2: with this person. So yeah, well I'm not what you thought.
Speaker 1: You could have done, way worse than Gladys he can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's quite malleable, it seems.
Speaker 1: Yes, although she also one hopes, has some of her
Speaker 1: mother in her.
Speaker 2: She's gonna need that.
Speaker 1: I think but that require kicking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I do hope she learned that.
Speaker 1: I hope she does. I hope she has it in
Speaker 1: her someplace. Yes, and if not, I hope Bertha hops
Speaker 1: on a boat and comes over there. Yes, deploys swift justice.
Speaker 1: So should be scared of her if you're not scared
Speaker 1: of the kid, although then again, they may soon be
Speaker 1: penniless if JP Morgan's yes, if his threats predictions are true, yes.
Speaker 2: Well once again Larry is now.
Speaker 1: Yes, Larry can help out.
Speaker 2: But there were some intimations in the in this trailer
Speaker 2: that maybe Larry isn't so good with money, like, oh,
Speaker 2: he's good at apparently negotiating, but yes, maybe hanging on
Speaker 2: to it honest, not so much.
Speaker 1: Oh, Larry, Marry, please do not be feckless, because we
Speaker 1: like you and Marion together.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, he definitely.
Speaker 1: Feel like she could possibly find a more stable match.
Speaker 1: Oh well, let's see. At one point of Bertha says,
Speaker 1: go to bed, George and wake up sensible. Yes, I
Speaker 1: feel like that's a parenting tip. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that you could say that to your children sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yes, what it worked unclear, but yes, I did enjoy that.
Speaker 1: It's just like, we are going to we are going
Speaker 1: to end this right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna you know, reset.
Speaker 1: Reset, and uh let's uh, let's see how it is
Speaker 1: in the morning. That's sometimes that is the way to
Speaker 1: get past a bump.
Speaker 2: Yes, time out, everybody, take a step back, have a
Speaker 2: nice rest, and we'll try again tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you This isn't really parenting related, but there was
Speaker 2: this whole thing where there was an article in the
Speaker 2: newspaper about Missus Astor's daughter, and so Missus Astor was like, well,
Speaker 2: you're not coming to this wedding, you know, because because
Speaker 2: of this. And then at the wedding Ada says to
Speaker 2: Missus Astor some I'm like, oh, what was it? There
Speaker 2: was something in.
Speaker 1: The paper that we were gonna we were.
Speaker 2: Going to ask and I was like, Aida, what where
Speaker 2: did that come from? Like, she hasn't been that sort
Speaker 2: of space cadet before, has.
Speaker 1: She pretty space cadet?
Speaker 2: But I mean to just I don't know that well,
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 1: She didn't remember what the story was about, just that
Speaker 1: there was a story, right, But still I don't think
Speaker 1: you talk about Missus talked to Missus Astor about her
Speaker 1: name being in the papers. Any reason, good or bad.
Speaker 2: Right, And I feel like Ada knows that or she once.
Speaker 1: She passive aggressively being was she acting ditsy even when
Speaker 1: she really meant to be, or which doesn't seem like.
Speaker 2: Her No, because she's just she doesn't want to be cruel,
Speaker 2: I mean no.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's just becoming more of a Are we supposed
Speaker 1: to think maybe she's losing a step or something like.
Speaker 2: That, right, right, Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree that she has been kind of flaky at times,
Speaker 2: and see hiring a psychic, but that just seemed a
Speaker 2: step beyond you know. Yeah, Well, don't raise your children
Speaker 2: so that one sister will refuse to you know, so
Speaker 2: that your children will have to go behind your back
Speaker 2: to invite yeah, to invite your sister to their wedding, Larry, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: stay friendly with the extended family, and if not, make
Speaker 2: your choices specifically known, and you know, possibly.
Speaker 1: Cut the phone lines or the to instruct the servants
Speaker 1: that know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't mail any letters.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Yes. If you have a sibling that you
Speaker 1: do not wish to interact with in certain situations, what
Speaker 1: do you do? How do you you theoretically want your
Speaker 1: child to be to know your family members. Say friendly
Speaker 1: with your family members, but you don't necessarily want to
Speaker 1: interact with your family members. That's a difficult thing. That's
Speaker 1: a parenting tip. I don't think, however, that the waybirth
Speaker 1: handled it is the right. Is a tip, h boy
Speaker 1: punting tip. Anticipate family awkwardness right and think through how
Speaker 1: you're going to handle it instead of just assuming that
Speaker 1: nobody will do anything without your.
Speaker 2: Right Exactly when you have a son who's been making
Speaker 2: him a lot of noise about about stuff that's kind
Speaker 2: of not necessarily his business, you know, and teach your kids.
Speaker 1: And this is something I have not quite done sufficiently,
Speaker 1: although my mother before me, as I've mentioned many times,
Speaker 1: did it well, teach your kids to fear you. You know,
Speaker 1: Larry should know that if he does this thing, he's
Speaker 1: going to be in it with his mom, and he
Speaker 1: may have favors to ask of his mom in recent
Speaker 1: you know soon, and he perhaps wants to be on
Speaker 1: her good side. Yeah, you don't want your kids thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: we'll do this, Mom will be really happy about this.
Speaker 2: Ha ha ha.
Speaker 1: Well, well I don't care what mom thinks. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to do what I think is best, and you know,
Speaker 1: if it bothers her, that'll be hilarious. We don't want this.
Speaker 1: We want to train them to say, I would love
Speaker 1: to see my aunt, but I don't think that mom
Speaker 1: wants to deal with the stress of that right now,
Speaker 1: with the wedding and everything. I'll just keep my mouth shut. Yeah,
Speaker 1: parenting too, Yeah, you know, make them know that you're
Speaker 1: a handful and respect that. My children do not respect that.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I'm pretty much of a handful,
Speaker 1: but I don't. They don't handle me the way that
Speaker 1: I feel my mother earned the right to be handled,
Speaker 1: darn it, because anybody knows how to do that, because
Speaker 1: even Bertha, even Bertha is absolutely and definitively a handful. Yes,
Speaker 1: George and Larry, we're just off doing things that no, no,
Speaker 1: I mean there's one word she like just tells George
Speaker 1: to go to bed, right he's looking old us in
Speaker 1: one and I'm like, man, you made this, you made
Speaker 1: this bed. Now you may not lie in it.
Speaker 2: Yes, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just be clear mh and uh, exact punishment exactly,
Speaker 1: and your daughter will get her butt out of her
Speaker 1: room and go down the aisle. Yeh, yeh. Get me
Speaker 1: out of this country and away from her. Yeah, even
Speaker 1: the the sister may be unpleasant, but she's not my sister,
Speaker 1: She's not my mother. I could probably do what I want. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: how will this turn out?
Speaker 2: Yes? Well we shall so next Wednesday. The episode is
Speaker 2: called a different world for lots of people. That's true
Speaker 2: venture to guess, So.
Speaker 1: I will be spending the time in between worrying less
Speaker 1: about Gladys than I am about Jack. Buddy, put the
Speaker 1: money someplace, say, but Larry open up? Well again, perhaps
Speaker 1: not a bank? Could you put that? Where got that?
Speaker 2: Yet?
Speaker 1: I'm nervous about that money. That's a lot of money,
Speaker 1: even in those those days. Dollars, those dollars, right, so yikes?
Speaker 2: Yes, well, well we'll see what happens next week. Our
Speaker 2: weekly Roundabout roundup is on vacation this week, so we
Speaker 2: will be back next Tuesday, and that'll be for Lost
Speaker 2: Season three, episode twelve.
Speaker 1: We wie. Thank you for listening. You can find all
Speaker 1: our episodes on your Apple podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. You can find recaps, links, and
Speaker 1: an opportunity to comment on our website at parentingroundabout dot com.
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