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 start this for them.

Maybe you do it because you're in a hurry.

Maybe you do it because you hate to see them struggle.

Maybe it's just a sweet gesture.

Maybe you remember your own parents doing it for you.

Whatever the reason, you should stop.

When we had General H.R. McMaster on the Daily Stoic podcast a while back,

McMaster, a father of a millennial,

joked about how he and his daughter jokingly refer to their peers as the start my orange

for me generation, meaning they can't even peel an orange without having their parents get it

going first. And why is that? Because for as long as they've been conscious of it, their parents

have been doing stuff like that,

whether it was the Science Fair Project or arguing with teachers over grades or funding the down payment

of a house. There are lots of reasons for this snowplow helicopter parenting style,

narcissism, fear, insecurity, economic uncertainty, and of course, real love. But regardless of the emotions

behind it, the effect is the same. It creates a kind of learned helplessness, creates dependency.

It creates resentment, too, at the parents, at the world, when they eventually face difficult

problems without the necessary tools for solving them. Our goal is to raise self-sufficient kids.

...