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. It's almost too painful to see. Only when it's over will we realize it. Only when it's all been

stripped away will we be able to see how not present we were, how much we took it for granted,

how often we prioritize the wrong thing, how needlessly strict or harsh we were. For Joan Didion, whose beautiful and haunting books,

a year of magical thinking and blue nights, talk about this. She came to this realization when

she lost her husband and her adult daughter in short order. The books she wrote were about grief,

sure, but not just the grief at what had disappeared, but also grief at the unavoidable

realizations that came from that loss. How inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here,

she writes in Blue Nights. It's something else I could never afford to see. We can't afford to see it

because it's too painful. We can't afford to not see it either.

Someday this will be over. They will grow up. They will move out. You will get old.

Accidents happen. Cancer happens. But right now, right now you have them. Right now you have this

moment. Will you appreciate it? Will you be here for it? Will you value the

right things? Will you be the parent you want to be? Because you can do and be all those things

if you only learn to appreciate the moment first. Parents today have to choose between these old school radio monitors or

Wi-Fi-based cameras that force you to use an unreliable app, but not anymore, because that's

where today's sponsor comes in, Harbor. Look, as a parent, you're always craving peace of mind, a good night's sleep, and that's part

of why you have a baby monitor.

It brings its own set of worries because you're relying on it, and they are so terribly

unreliable.

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