Summary
Kody Brown’s emotional leadership has made him a bad parent to his 18 children, leading to difficulties in his relationships with them and his wives. Kody tries to pit his children against each other and their moms, manipulating their perceptions and creating unnecessary conflict. Kody feels entitled to his children’s time, acting like spending time with them is a chore and trying to buy their affection instead of building emotional connections.
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Sister Wives season 18 has proven that Kody Brown leads with his emotions, which makes it easy to see how bad of a parent he’s been to his 18 children. Kody’s currently married to Robyn Brown and has previously been married to Christine Brown, Janelle Brown, and Meri Brown. The Brown family has lived in plural marriage for close to 30 years, but after Christine chose to leave the family during Sister Wives season 17, things began to crumble for Kody and his family. Christine’s departure was emotional for Kody, pushing him into a spiral that led to difficulties in his relationships with Janelle and Meri, as well.
While Kody’s relationships with his wives have always been tumultuous, he’s seemed to have a decent relationship with his children in the past. Long before Sister Wives season 18, Kody showed off his kids and was typically seen moving from home to home to be with his wives and children. As things progressed in his relationship with Robyn and Kody’s kids from his other marriages got older, his relationships with his children changed. COVID-19 brought about a new era for the Brown family, and with Kody’s stringent rules, his relationships with his children grew cold and impossible to repair.
Kody Tries To Pit His Children Against Each Other & Their Moms
While Kody has always understood each of his wives’ roles in the family, he’s been quick to try and change the way his children perceive each other. Kody has 6 children with both Janelle and Christine, all of whom were born around similar times. He shares 1 child with Meri, and 5 with Robyn after adopting her 3 children from a previous marriage. With 18 children to keep track of, Kody hasn’t always been the most present parent in his children’s lives, and it shows in the way he behaves towards them. Kody’s style of parenting doesn’t work for most of his children, but he’s blissfully unaware.
While Kody feels he’s being supportive of his children, he spends his time with his kids trying to buy their affection in some way or another or attempting to pit them against one another. Kody is likely very aware of how little energy he spends on his kids, especially in recent years as they’ve grown. When he does see them, he tries to make himself look like a fun, cool parent. With Robyn’s kids, whom he spends the most time with, Kody tries to paint himself as the victim of all the rest of his kids’ attitudes. Kody creates conflict between his children where there doesn’t need to be any.
Kody’s Kids Compare Notes About His Behavior
Although Kody’s children have been isolated from each other in the past, when they were growing up many of them spent a lot of their time together. Christine’s kids and Janelle’s kids grew up spending most of their time with one another, as they were all around the same age and their mothers stepped in to help one another out. As the kids grew older, they all began to understand their father’s role in the family and how little time he truly spent with any of them.
Though Kody was present in their lives, it was difficult to truly know or get attention from their dad, and the kids were all forming familial relationships with their siblings instead. Since they were growing up together, by the time they reached a maturity level where they could vocalize their concerns about their father, the Brown children were likely fed up with his behavior towards them and their mothers. After Robyn joined the family, many of the Brown children have explained they saw a shift in the way Kody acted. They’ve shared that after speaking together, many of them changed the way they operate in their relationships with their father.
Kody Feels Entitled To His Children’s Time
With Kody working hard to ensure that his children still view him as a parental figure despite spending minimal time with his kids, he often speaks about how annoyed he feels when his older children don’t make time for him. Kody’s younger children include his two youngest with Robyn and his younger daughters from Christine and Janelle, and though he spends most of his time with his and Robyn’s kids, he rarely spends time with Truely, who he shares with Christine, or Savannah, who he shares with Janelle. When Kody does want to spend time with his daughters, he makes it clear that he’s entitled to as their parent.
Kody speaks about spending time with his kids as though it’s a chore rather than a privilege. He acts like he’s tried to spend as much time with his kids as possible when he’s spent very little time with his children over the course of their lives. He’s made it clear that with so many children, it’s hard to divide his time in an equal measure. When he puts all of his attention on one set of kids it’s hard to say he’s actually trying to make things equal. Kody has done this in his relationships with his wives and his children, and the tactic doesn’t seem to be working.
Kody Tries To Buy His Kids’ Affection
Earlier in Sister Wives season 18, Kody shared that he was doing his best to make sure his kids knew how loved they were during the holiday season. Instead of doing this by spending time with his family all together, the Browns were all separated during the Christmas holiday. Kody was even in a fight with two of his sons, Gabe Brown and Garrison Brown, which he refused to put an end to despite Janelle asking him to. Rather than trying to have an emotional connection with his children, Kody has tried to buy their affection with elaborate gifts and experiences while ignoring those he has more difficulty connecting with.
Kody’s Always Been Too Selfish To Be A Good Parent
Although Kody has claimed time and time again that he’s a great parent to his 18 children, the Sister Wives star has shown that he’s anything but. From putting his relationships with his wives first to allowing his emotions to govern his life in an unhealthy way, Kody has spent the entirety of his time in public eye proving that he’s selfish. He only ever considers the way things will look when it comes to him, not his kids or his family as a whole. For Kody, being a parent is something he had to do in order to progress forward in his life.
Having kids was an achievement or milestone to check off his to do list, and rather than fostering his relationships with his children, Kody has chosen to neglect his kids and spend his time working on himself and his relationships. For Kody, his time on Sister Wives has proven that he’s always been selfish, but his actions in recent years have made it clear that his selfish nature has made him a bad parent, and is consistently causing him to do worse with his children.