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.

Beware the power you wield. The things we say to our kids matter. The tone we use, the rules we

enforce, the standards we hold them to, they feel it. They feel it profoundly. Kids always have and

they always will. We recently talked about that fierce and strict Marine General Victor Krulak.

One of his sons once got in trouble and was ordered by his father to write an essay about his

screw-up.

When he was done, he was to bring the essay back downstairs.

What was it about?

Was his father right to be upset?

Coming from a good place?

Who knows?

Who remembers?

Krulock probably immediately forgot,

thinking only that he was disciplining a child who needed to be taught a lesson. But the severity of the anger, the judgment of that moment stayed with the boy forever. The experience so scarred

him, Robert Kourham writes in his biography of the Elder Krulock,

that when he was 70 and recounting those days, his voice trembled when he said,

Neatness and Spelling counted. We wield incredible power over our children, first because they

are small, later because they were once small while we were

big. And that differential never really goes away, which is why we must be so cognizant of how we use

this power. It's why we must be kind and endlessly patient. It's why we have to work so hard to

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