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.

Don't cut it short if you don't have to. He was busy. There was work waiting. They had just spent some wonderful

family time together, riding bicycles, picking flowers, just having fun in the countryside.

Afterwards, Pierre Curie headed back to Paris. He just didn't know that he was heading

towards his untimely death. Once we got back, you wanted to leave his wife, Madame Curie would write

in a heartbreaking letter to her husband. I was very unhappy, but I wouldn't oppose you. She had

stayed with the kids he had left. I wanted to give the children one more day in the country,

she said, why was I so misguided? I lived one day less with you. But of course, he had been the misguided one.

He had cut the trip short. He had rushed back. And when his wife had followed a day later,

they had seen each other for one more morning. How had that gone? They fought. I was taking care of the

children, she said. You left. Asking me from below if I was coming to the laboratory.

I answered you that I had no idea and I begged you not to torment me. Hours later, he would be

struck by a horse-drawn carriage while crossing the street in Paris. The blow caused Pierre to

slip under the wheels, resulting in a fatal skull fracture.

In the Daily Dad entry for December 28th, we tell the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

whose life was altered the day he woke up to find polio ravaging his body.

Movement in his legs would never return.

But we also described the wonderful day which had preceded it, a full day

with family, a day of adventure and fun. Of course, sometimes we have to cut family time short,

but most of the time, it's not necessity that motivates us. It's anxiety, it's busyness,

...