Sister Wives season 18 viewers have watched Kody Brown deny all responsibility for the problems in the Brown family, and it's time for him to become a better man. However, he's set in his ways. If Kody did make an effort to change, he might mitigate some of the damage he's done over the years. While he can't fix everything, progress is always possible. Since he's hurt Meri, Janelle and Christine Brown so much, he needs to take accountability. The longer he waits, the harder it will be. Children are involved, so how Kody interacts with his exes really matters.

In Sister Wives season 18, Janelle's been having such a hard time, and Kody's to blame. In the most recent episode, her comments were heartbreaking. She said, "I do miss Kody. We are very best friends." Janelle added, "I miss him in my bed. I miss him in my house. I miss him." When Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin divorced, they decided to, "consciously uncouple." Their breakup strategy was mocked, but there was something noble about it. They tried to avoid the messiness that Janelle and Kody are experiencing. However, Kody may not have the tools to "consciously uncouple" with Janelle. If ever a man needed to evolve, it's Kody.

Related: Sister Wives Season 18 Episode 6 Recap: Shocking Moments

8 Kody Should Apologize For Favoring Robyn

Kody keeps making excuses for why his polygamous family's falling to pieces, but the reason is crystal clear. Does someone need to write it in the sky before the patriarch really understands? The reason is Robyn. Like a witch from MacBeth, she cooks up a cauldron filled with black magic. Her witches' brew is potent, but she doesn't need lizard's tails and eye of newt to get results. Her potion has all the necessary ingredients, including salty Sobbin' Robyn tears, kooky magical thinking, and a twist of passive aggression. Delicious!

While Robyn's the puppetmaster, Kody gives her free rein. To repay him for that, she backs him up on everything. This is where it gets toxic. By enabling Kody to neglect the other wives for years, and telling him that he was making the right decisions, she's helped to destroy the plural marriage that she claimed to value. In fact, she separated Kody from his older sons at Christmas, in a power move that was shady to say the least.

This duo has wreaked havoc. Janelle's life's in tatters, and she acts like she doesn't know where her next meal's coming from. She may be in financial distress because of Coyote Pass. Of course, she puts that on Kody and Robyn. They live like royalty while she goes without. Meri's been going it alone for eons, and feels excommunicated from the family. Christine isn't so unhappy, but she's angry. Every non-Robyn wife is seething. Meanwhile, Kody can't bring himself to say, "I'm sorry."

He did manage to wring a pseudo-apology out of himself in the last episode. Kody said, "I'm embarrassed by my behavior, but I'm also realizing that you don't have a safe place, a safe way to talk to me." Then, he referenced the rage that's poisoning the atmosphere in season 18. He added, "I am morphing or transmuting grief into anger."

While this was better than nothing, and showed a pale glimmer of self-awareness, telling a wife of 30 years that she's not "safe" with him was just sad. He needs to be much more contrite. He's still dodging responsibility. Sister Wives' Janelle Brown actually loves this man! It's hard to believe, but it's true. Imagine how much it must hurt her when he says that she's not "safe" with him. It's like he's muzzling her with his remarks, and trying to stem the flood of emotional words.

7 Kody Should Mend Fences With Paedon Brown

Paedon Brown, who's currently 25 years old, isn't shy about expressing his disdain for his famous father and Kody's interfering wife, Robyn. In fact, he's got more than a little of Kody's legendary bravado. Paedon's been shown onscreen in season 18, mocking Kody and Robyn's immune systems and taking Christine's side. He's not shy about the fact that he supports Christine's decision to leave Kody high and dry.

Paedon's using mockery to cloak how hurt he is. Kody's let him down again and again. He seems to feel that his father's a scammer, as he "outed" Kody as an anti-vaxxer, after all the patriarch's endless chatter about being extra-cautious during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the bad blood definitely doesn't stop there.

Kody should be Paedon's safety net, but he isn't. He's not Paedon's hero. A caring father's such a comforting thing. A loving dad will give a child strength, rather than throwing them off balance. A great father will always be there. By spending more time with Robyn's children, Kody has made a grave mistake. Paedon's not on speaking terms with his father, who should be his rock. It's a nasty situation that Kody should try to change.

While it might be hard to become the sort of father that's put on a pedestal and belongs there, it's not impossible. Kody should change his habits, making his child a priority. Calls, texts, gifts, and genuine interest in his son's life could change everything. While being a wonderful father is very hard work, and the work of a lifetime, it can be done. Other men have risen to the occasion. While Paedon might resist Kody's efforts to connect, he could eventually soften, healing the rift that's so wrenching for father and son.

6 Kody Should Acknowledge Emotionally Abusing Meri

Emotional abuse can exist in many forms. It can be accomplished by isolating a person, humiliating them, and trying to bring them down. Kody's guilty of all of these things, with Robyn's help. Meri's the most isolated woman in the Brown family. Offscreen, she's left Kody, but Meri still leaves cryptic posts that show her sad wistfulness over her fate. While she's technically let go, those Instagram posts show what's happening inside of her. She's in her feelings.

King Kody kicked Meri out of his inner circle, degrading her in many insidious ways. Queen Robyn was still there, sitting right beside Kody at each and every family meeting. These get-togethers were like kangaroo courts, where Kody and Robyn had already made every decision. They went through the motions, trying to convince Meri and the other Brown family members that they were part of a democracy. However, it was just a game. Meri was increasingly powerless in the troubled family dynamic. The only thing she could do to change things was leave.

In the latest episode, Meri's still worrying about Kody. She doesn't want him to think that her Utah move means that she's done with their plural marriage. No one should be more done than Meri. She couldn't win Kody's forgiveness after she got catfished, and decided to retreat. Meri wanted to move her LuLaRoe venture (Christine's not with that company anymore) venture to Utah. Meri, who comes off as a bit weak at times, is concerned that Kody won't support her choice. That she would care is frankly mind-boggling. When he has ever supported her emotionally? Three decades ago?

In terms of his attitude towards Meri, Kody might as well be on the moon. He's just not there. He's in space. That's something he should apologize for too. While Meri's also made mistakes, her misdeeds pale in comparison to his own.

5 Kody Should Make Amends For Missing Ysabel Brown's Scoliosis Surgery

The relationship between a father and daughter can be very special. Sometimes, this type of "opposite sex" dynamic works beautifully. It's more common for dads to have trouble parenting sons, or moms to struggle while raising daughters. However, Kody doesn't have a magical bond with Ysabel Brown. He hurt her when he refused to attend her scoliosis surgery during the pandemic. Of course, Christine was there at the hospital while a surgeon operated on her child.

This kind of stuff's very hard to make up for. It casts a long, dark shadow. Since Kody has 18 kids, it's not that surprising that he's feuded with many of his children. While he and Ysabel don't openly argue, there's still hurt feelings. Kody wasn't wrong to be cautious during the pandemic, but surgery's a big deal. Ysabel was probably frightened before her operation. That kind of anxiety's very common. Kody being close by might have eased her fears. It's a father's job to make these difficult moments easier.

A good father would be there. He'd find a way. Perhaps he'd double-mask, wear gloves, and then hold his daughter's hand while she was lying on the gurney. A great father would look beyond the risks, recognizing that his presence was all-important. It didn't go over well when Kody missed that operation. Lots of Sister Wives fans are moms or dads. They know what's up.

4 Kody Shouldn't HIde His "Romantic Tension" With Robyn

Kody's in love with Robyn. He sometimes tries to hide that, but never succeeds. Kody never quite says out loud that his love ruined their family, but it's understood. When he said he was going to try and hide his, "romantic tension" with Robyn while he was around Meri, he was really telling a story. He was revealing a twisted attitude about reality. Kody would rather hide an obvious truth than face the music.

To be a better man, Kody needs honor, and that's in short supply right now. It's been missing in action for some time. A great husband and father always has honor. It's about having values and never deviating from the high road. Instead of honoring his unloved wives and ex Christine, Kody focuses on cutting them down. Would a true gentleman do that? Kody's no gentleman. He rips apart his own wives onscreen. He's mockingly called them, "princesses" and worse. He referred to Janelle as the "Teflon Queen." However, they're good women just the same.

If he did have the honor to admit that he's only loved Robyn since she entered his life, Kody might feel a sense of freedom. As it stands, he's still trapped in the role that he's been playing. It's not hard to admit to a truth, particularly when it's so painfully evident (and so important). Yet he cannot say the words.

If he did, it might take some pressure off. Instead of attacking the many unhappy women in his life, he could change his tactics. He could just be who he is. Those other women would accept that truth, and maybe even be healed by it. All of them intuitively understand what's happening anyway.

3 Kody Should Stop Thinking Of Christine As The Enemy

Christine isn't really Kody's enemy. She just wants to live her life. Christine doesn't want to be under Kody's thumb. She wants to be her own person, and she's quite capable of manifesting a happy future. Kody's so paranoid that he doesn't understand this fundamental truth. She's way past worrying about his relationship with Robyn or anything else. However, Christine does have issues when it comes to Kody squandering resources and attention on Robyn and their children. She's well-acquainted with the kind of misery that Kody's dishonorable favoritism can trigger. She's experienced it firsthand.

Despite her anger, Christine extended an olive branch to Kody. However, he was too suspicious to accept it. He still felt he was being played. He may have felt that Christine was laughing at him. If Kody let down his guard, he might realize that Christine's sincere. She's quite willing to be friends. She's detached emotionally in season 18, and now, IRL, (SPOILER ALERT) she may be married to another man.

Kody should be friends with Christine. They have kids. Plus, they have a history. However, his friendship's not mandatory (not by a long shot). Christine can definitely get by without it.

2 Kody Should See A Therapist

Kody has problems. The changes in his life are negatively impacting him and altering his personality. He knows something's wrong, but doesn't seem to be able to get himself back on track. His referenced his anger while talking with Janelle in the last episode, so he realizes that he's carrying a lot of anger. He directs it at people who are basically innocent. Christine only left because he didn't pay attention to her. It's not like she didn't give him countless chances to fix their relationship. She wanted him to fix it.

With Janelle, Kody's also a rage-aholic. When he's not implying that dirt never sticks to Janelle, he's telling her that it isn't, "safe" for her to share her innermost feelings with him. However, he feels comfortable enough to share his own anger with her. She gives him an important gift, which is the capacity to be himself. His non-Robyn wives don't have that luxury. If they do something that he doesn't like, he lashes out.

Talking to a therapist might help Kody to vent. He could let the professional know what's bothering him, and maybe feel lighter, emotionally speaking, when he leaves that person's office. Therapy would be good for Kody because he has so many blind spots. He expects his thwarted spouses to swallow his cooked-up narratives like a baby swallows Pablum. They can't do that anymore, as too much has happened.

1 Kody Should Be Nicer To Robyn

Kody and Robyn aren't in the best place in season 18. However, they're still a united front, more or less.Since Kody's chosen Robyn as his queen, he should stop torturing her with his divorce blues. Of course, some strong emotions are expected and normal. However, being with Robyn is what Kody wants. If it wasn't, things would have been very different. He would have kept sleeping with the other wives, and he would have cared more about their problems.

Since he's said offscreen that he's not interested in marrying again, and Robyn wants polygamy, why can't he just be happy? He needs to surrender to the situation. Christine fled, Janelle's planning to do the same, and Meri's heading for Utah. The jig is up. The Brown family will never be the same, but that's not a bad thing. The dynamic was unbearable for everyone involved. Now, the stars of Sister Wives season 18 can really live. There might be some growing pains, but they'll be worth it in the end. This correction had to happen.