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.

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Make them promise.

It was on an ordinary day that Jimmy Carter's father pulled his son aside for a conversation.

Jimmy, he said, and he never called his son, Jimmy. I need to talk to you about something important.

Yes, sir, Daddy, Jimmy replied. There's something I want you to promise me, his father continued.

I don't want you to smoke a cigarette till you're 21 years old. This was in the late

1930s when something like 40% of the population smoked, when cigarettes could still be marketed to

children, and advertisements made claims like more doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.

Carter's dad himself was hopelessly hooked, too. I won't, Jimmy promised,

and then his father sweetened the deal. When the time comes, I'll give you a gold watch.

When he was 21 then in the Naval Academy, he finally tried smoking. By then, it was too late.

He'd missed his window and he hated it. He never smoked another cigarette. But tragically,

Carter's mother and three of Jimmy's siblings followed in his father's footsteps. Each one of

them died of pancreatic cancer. Carter, as it happens, is still alive at age 96. You'd think that

90 years later this conversation would be moot. Sadly, it isn't. Over 34 million

Americans are still hopelessly addicted to tobacco. Now with vaping and the legalization of pot,

over 5 million use around the United States use e-cigarettes and over 3 million use marijuana.

Lung cancers connected to smoking kill nearly 500,000 people a year, globally 7 million.

It's naive to just hope that your kids won't smoke.

You have to make them promise, as Carter's father did.

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