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 I hope this helps. In the end, it doesn't

even matter. Being two minutes late to school, the fourth discussion about cleaning up before company comes

over, the grouchy tone, the broken vase, the mischief with their friends, that I told you to

turn off the iPad and come help me downstairs.

All of these things seem so important in the moment.

They meant something.

They were lessons.

They were symbols.

They were the tops of slippery slopes. They were power struggles. They were ultimately arguments.

They started as reminders, started as opportunities to teach something, but they turned into

arguments. They turned into fights. But there will come a time when all the reasons, all the good

intentions, all the

significance of these moments will seem baffling to you. You will struggle to understand why you

thought any of it mattered. You will instead wish that you let more things go, that you let this

very thing go, that you weren't such a hard ass, such a tyrant, such a whatever. Because your kid

is a good kid, they always

were and always have been, and there was no danger of them becoming an entitled, irresponsible

drag on society. Certainly that path wasn't narrowly avoided because you yelled at them on the way

to school each morning. You'll regret it once it's obvious, because you'll want to spend more

time with them and want them to spend time with you.

...