Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you

with your most important job being a dad. These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy,

by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

It's not over for you.

The writer Susan Strait was helping her mother move when she found an old painting thrown in the

trash can, sensing that this wasn't something her mother had bought, she asked her about it.

I took a painting class at the YMCA, her mother explained. Then I found a book, teach yourself to

paint. My mother was an artist. She made beautiful sketches of our garden

and her house in Switzerland. Surprised and moved, they began to talk about this painting. Was it a

secret hobby that Susan hadn't known about? Did her mother have a creative side that she never

shared? Were there other paintings? Sadly, no. Just after I finished this, her mother stated, matter-of-factly,

I had you, and then I never painted again. My life was over. Yikes. Yet there is a part of us

that understands that, right? A part of us that when our house was suddenly flooded with babies

and diapers and our lives disrupted

by carpools and soccer practice, we felt like it was over. No more time for hobbies, no energy

for self-exploitation, let alone self-actualization. Certainly, we have been taxed and burdened in a way

we never expected, but we can't throw in the towel.

Because it's not over for us yet. Better for us to follow the path of Jimmy Carter's mother,

the one that asserts that age is no barrier. Better for us to follow Nell Painter's mother and

Nell Painter herself, two people who picked up new careers late in life. We can't use being parents as an excuse.

On the contrary, because our kids are watching, we have to keep pushing ourselves.

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