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.

Why this is so important.

This is just my personality, we say.

I just don't have any energy from when I get home from work, we complain.

I'm in a bad mood today, that's all.

My parents weren't any different and I turned out okay.

It's just a stressful period right now.

They're young, they won't remember any of this.

All lies, all excuses, all holding the potential to cause

terrible pain. In his beautiful and vulnerable memoir, Bruce Springsteen talks years later about how

his father's mood and issues affected him. As a boy, he said, I just figured it was the way men

were distant, uncommunicative, busy with the

currents of the grown-up world. As a child, you don't question your parents' choices. You accept

them. They are justified by the godlike status of parenthood. If you aren't spoken to, you're not

worth the time. If you're not greeted with love and affection, you haven't earned it. If you're

ignored, you don't exist it. If you're ignored,

you don't exist. It breaks your heart, and each of us is doing some version of that to our own kids

right now. Our moods and choices and the examples we set are affecting them always,

changing how they see the world and how they see themselves. It's making them feel better or worse,

worthwhile, or worthless, safe, or vulnerable. A little fellow follows you. Remember that. The

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