The hometown dates week on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette is the most exciting week for me, because we get to see a whole new side of the contestants. People tend to default back to their family role when they’re with their relatives, so even the coolest cat on The Bachelorette can melt on national television because of mom and dad. And, speaking of, who are Eric’s parents on The Bachelorette? We’re about to meet the Bigger family. Well, maybe.
Eric is the dark horse of Rachel’s season of The Bachelorette. He mostly stayed out of trouble, and now he’s a part of the four remaining contestants vying for Rachel’s heart. Eric spoke in previous episodes about how he grew up poor in a rough neighborhood in Baltimore and how that affected the outcome of his life. From what Eric has said in past dates with Rachel, his parents are separated and he didn’t grow up with a healthy relationship on which he could model his own. Maybe that’s why he never brought a girlfriend home before Rachel and the hometown dates.
That is why I’m thinking that Eric and his parents aren’t so close. Eric said on his one-on-one date with Rachel that he always felt that he lacked love at home, and he recently told the Baltimore Sun much the same: “My mom and dad was there … but they weren’t in my life from an emotional standpoint,” he said. “I took on everyone else’s burdens and emotions … it was just a very negative environment.” In the same interview, Eric dubbed his home life “hostile.” I did an Internet search for more information on Eric’s family, and I came up empty-handed.
Family is great, but it’s not the end-all, be-all, especially if you have to describe the way you grew up as “hostile.” Sometimes, it’s better to get yourself out of a situation than to suffer through it. Families can be born, and families can be made, and just because Eric doesn’t get along with his parents doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have people for Rachel to meet. Quoted also in the interview with the Baltimore Sun is Eric’s aunt, Verna Myers, and she speaks kindly of Eric’s tenacity: “He doesn’t allow the fact that he hasn’t done something before, or no one he knows has done something before, to deter him,” she said. Statements like that make me think that Eric and his aunt are close, so possibly fans will be meeting her on Monday.
Who else will Rachel be meeting on her Bachelorette trip to Charm City with Eric? I’m not sure (he does have a many siblings, so it could be them), but all that matters is that Rachel sees a group of people that supports and loves Eric for who he is — whomever that group may be.
