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 send them in defenseless. Your kids are going to face stuff in life. Big stuff, for sure, failing tests,

being made fun of, getting fired, losing something important to them. And we may wish we could

prevent this from happening, but we can't. We teach them resilience instead. But our kids are

also going to face little situations too. The TV is going to have to be turned off at some

point and they're not going to like it. They're going to have to get up early for school tomorrow.

The routines are going to change. They're going to have to try new things. They're going

to be out of their comfort zone. And this is going to bring up strong emotions, frustration,

fear, anger. The answer to this is also resilience, but in a more specific way. Dr. Becky talks

about this in her fantastic book, Good Inside, which I continue to rave about, and grab it at the

painted porch. She refers to a strategy she calls emotional vaccination. When we're sitting

down for screen time, she says, talk to them about how in 30 minutes that screen time is going to be over. And they should think now about how that's going to make them feel. As they're waiting to hear back about getting accepted into a summer camp, talk to them about how they may not get in, what that means and how they can process it. As you approach a new school year, drive by

the new school and talk through how those potential fears might feel. The Stoics knew that the

unexpected blow landed heaviest, and they would have loved this idea of emotional vaccination,

preparing in advance for big feelings, doing what we can do here in the present moment

to take some of the sting out of it, processing it early, addressing what might be irrational,

exaggerated while things are calm while there's still time. We can teach this to our kids. Better

yet, we can practice it. Vaccinate ourselves for our own inevitable and unavoidable big feelings.

This holiday season, don't just treat yourself to a one-time gift.

Give the gift that keeps on giving all year round with Box of Awesome from Bespoke Post.

...