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. Everything is a phase. It's tricky to understand this because

before you had kids, everything in your life seemed permanent. It just was. If your job sucked, it was never going to magically start not sucking. That was simply an element, the nature of the thing. It was a sucky job. If someone was treating you poorly or acting crazy, it was because they were crazy, because they

were a jerk. That was who they were. You either lived with it or you avoided it. If you had trouble

sleeping for many nights in a row, then you were a bad sleeper. You had a condition for which you had to go

get medical treatment. It certainly wasn't something that would just resolve itself. But kids, kids are different.

They go through phases. They have good days and bad days. They have what are called regressions.

So even after they've made progress with something like sleep, suddenly it feels like they lost

all their gains and then some. As people were not great at understanding these phases, we don't have the patience

for them. Of course, rationally, we know our teenager will eventually grow out of whatever it is

they're doing what's driving us nuts. But right now, right now, we're on the receiving end of it.

We're not witnessing it. We're experiencing it. And we have trouble just waiting it out.

Our kids are going through a sleep regression and suddenly we're despairing. Will I ever get a good

night's rest again? Yes, you will. Just wait. Be patient. Be loving. Don't try to force anything.

The same goes with so many other behavioral issues. Your kid is not a jerk. They haven't lost their mind.

They're struggling with something. So be there for them. Help them. Don't ascribe any meaning to this

whatsoever. What is growing up but passing through a series of phases? You went through this.

Every human alive did. It's only as we get older,

as life stabilizes a bit that we forget just how many phases that we went through, how rapidly

we cycled in and out of so many, so many insane, incomprehensible phases. So be patient,

be helpful, be understanding. Don't make things worse. And as the old poets say,

...