This show is sponsored by Better Help.

Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom,

and insights from parents just like you all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Being this young is art.

You know how brief it is, what a fleeting, wonderful thing it is, youth.

How flexible you were then, how much energy you had, what you could eat without consequence,

the innocence, the earnestness, the sweetness.

You had it once and now it's gone, disappeared beneath the years and the experiences and everything else.

When Taylor Swift sang, being this young is art,

she wasn't talking about your kids, about kids generally, but she may as well have been. And

it's high time we appreciate it because it's something special, something irreplaceable,

something that one can only do for a short time at a very specific time.

As we've said here many times, their childhood isn't something we should rush through, that we should

wish away. There's something bittersweet about milestones and our kids, the same way there is

something tragic about an athlete maturing and becoming a veteran player

inherent in it is something going away something that will never return it's a one-way street

so let's appreciate it while it's here even when it's loud even when it's messy even when it's

screaming as teenagers sometimes do I hate you?

Because they're doing something that only they can do,

and they can only do it for such a short while longer.

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