Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you

with your most important job being a dad. These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy,

by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Don't over do it. You love them. It feels good to get them things. It feels good to spoil them even, especially if you're someone who works a lot, who feels guilty about mistakes they've made, who carries wounds from your own childhood.

But we have to be careful. Plutarch reminds us of something we have all seen, maybe even experienced in our own childhood.

In my time, he said, I have seen fathers in whom excessive affection had become the cause of no affection, just as plants are

nourished by moderate applications of water, but drowned by many in succession. We've talked before

about F. Scott Fitzgerald and how in time he came to

resent, even hate his parents for the spoiled bubble they had kept him in as a child. We've talked

about John F. Kennedy, who was so sheltered that he missed the Great Depression. Neither of their

parents did these things out of malice, but out of love. And yet it ended up harming their children

and their relationships more than it helped them. We would do well to learn from these cautionary tales.

We have to be moderate in all things, even in our generosity and affection. There is such a thing

as too much of a good thing. Give them a little space.

Let them struggle.

Let them know what it means to want but not always have.

Let them know you love and care about them, of course.

But nobody wants to be smothered, so don't overdo it.

Balance.

That's the key.

Thanks for listening to the Daily Dad podcast.

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