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.

How to get them through tough times.

One thing we know for certain is that our kids will go through

things. They'll have a crisis of identity, a faith, of social status. They'll be overwhelmed. They'll be

confused. They'll have questions. They'll doubt themselves. It would be wonderful if we could guide

them through all these things, but that's going to be impossible. Because even though we went

through our own issues as

kids, and as much as we'd like to hold their hand through it, we're not always going to be there.

And as we've said before, we're not always going to be able to understand. They're not always going

to be willing to hear from us. Anyway, but you know what we can always do? We can point them towards the greatest

resource in the world, the greatest resource in history, the written word. No matter what your

kids are going through, no matter how strange or unique their issues seem, they need to understand

that lots of people have struggled with that exact issue, and there are many

books on this topic. My daughter and I shared books when she was growing up, the great Judy

Bloom recently said. Books can help you talk through tough topics. We still talk about books and

trade titles we recently enjoyed, she said. When I was growing up, my mother was always reading

when I came

home from school. She had trouble talking to me about anything, which she's the one who handed me

Anne Frank's diary of a young girl. Books are a wonderful way to slip past your children's defenses,

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