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.

Let them know they have it. We wanted it so badly and we never got it. We still haven they have it.

We wanted it so badly and we never got it.

We still haven't got it.

Dad was withholding.

Dad was hard to please.

We wanted to make him proud and we just couldn't.

That's partly why we're working so hard today.

There's some part of us that thinks that if we can just accomplish enough, make enough money,

win enough awards, surpass him, then maybe finally we'll get that begrudging pat on the back.

We'll get him to acknowledge us.

He'll let us know he respects us and appreciates us.

But somehow it never seems to be enough.

The comedian Pete Holmes has a little poem he wrote as a joke, capturing this dynamic.

Mom thinks it's great.

Dad's not impressed.

This is how we learn to do our best.

As we said before, this isn't actually a good form of best.

It's thirsty.

It's desperate.

...