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 your job to check in. Nobody steals a scene on

Seinfeld quite like George's parents, Frank and Estelle

Costanza. And of course, nobody makes George more miserable than them. They are a crazy,

absurd set of parents. In one episode, George has to make his weekly call to them, and it's a task

he finds so onerous he has to prepare things in advance to talk about.

The twist, of course, is that George's parents dread the calls themselves. Every Sunday with

the calls, they finally complain. In reality, this is precisely backwards. Why is George checking in?

That's his parents' job. If we can reiterate our philosophy here, your kids

owe you nothing. You owe them everything. After all, why should they foot the bill for a decision

you made and they had no say in? You chose this life. They did not. What does that mean? It means

that as your kids get older, there's none of that. Why don't you ever call nagging?

Because that's your job. That said, if you want the kind of relationship with your kids where they do call and check in and share what's going on with their lives, it starts when they are much, much younger, when you can't just expect them to open up and share with you, When you have to check in with them, as we've said,

because they don't know that they're struggling or that there's anything worth sharing.

Kids simply don't have the experience or their perspective yet to know one way or the other.

So you have to reach out. Just being there is not enough. You have to seek them out. You have to gently pry them open.

You have to help them realize their own feelings.

You have to be more than there.

You have to be proactive.

Help them.

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