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.

Give in to this.

You have a very important job.

You have so much going on, and that's the terrible part about

having kids for both men and women. For most of us, it comes right in the prime of our careers,

in the prime of our lives. Can we afford to slow down, to stop? Do we want to? In the 18th century,

Lafayette's wife found herself writing to her husband, then a hero of two worlds,

in the midst of glory on the world stage when he might come home and have a minute for family.

The occupations of paternity are so sweet, she said, give in to them. They can only be good.

But like so many of us, he was too busy, not just because there was that

crisis, you know, the one with the American Revolution, but because he seemed to find another one

and another one and another one after that. He would be gone for years, and when he was back in France,

he was called away to meetings and events and parties. As Mike Duncan would write in his

fascinating biography hero of two worlds, Lafayette would not

come to appreciate her words until many regretful years later. His precious daughter would die

at two. His wife would not live to see 50, though she would experience time in a French prison

along with her grandmother, mother, and sister. Family life is so sweet, yet we resist it.

We let things call us away.

We accept excuses much more flimsy than political revolution.

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