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 take this from them. We forget how lucky we were, even if we were not always so lucky.

Maybe our parents didn't have much in the way of career expectations for us.

Maybe we chanced into our career accidentally.

Maybe we had to struggle against very clear expectations to follow in the family business or to make our families proud. The point is we ended up where we are. And now that we're here, we have to be careful to give our kids the same optionality. even if we feel like we learn some hard lessons, we'd like to spare them.

We talked recently about some of Gandhi's failures as a parent.

But one of the clearest ways was the way he meddled and controlled his son's lives

in a way that he had never been subjected to himself. As his biographer, Ramashandran Gouha writes, there is little question that Gandhi bore down heavily on his eldest son. He did not recognize his good fortune and being allowed to follow his own path independent of his parents' wishes. Had his father Cobb had been alive when Gandhi finished his matriculation. He never would have allowed the boy to proceed

across the ocean to London. Had his mother been alive in 1893, she might not have permitted him

to make another perilous overseas journey to South Africa. Once in the diaspora, Gandhi was able

to carve out a profession. his matriculation. He never would have allowed the boy to proceed across the ocean to London. Had his mother been alive in 1893,

she might not have permitted him to make another perilous overseas journey to South Africa.

Once in the diaspora, Gandhi was able to carve out a professional and activist career of his own choice without any interference from family elders. We cannot take this period of discovery from our kids. It's good that we're present and Karen and more aware than our own parents. but we can't live our children's lives for them or write their story for them.

Only they can do that.

Only random luck and fate and chance encounters can give them those stories that color,

the texture and nuance necessary for our kids feel like they truly own them.

Imagine what the world would have been had Gandhi's parents been able to control him. or write their story for them. Only they can do that. Only random luck and fate and chance encounters can give them those stories that color the texture and nuance necessary for our kids.

I feel like they truly own them. Imagine what the world would have been had Gandhi's parents been able to control him. Think of what the world would have been deprived of. Now think about what he may have deprived the world of. Now think about what he may have deprived the world of when he turned around and tried to control his own children. Hey, thank you for listening to The Daily Dad podcast.

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