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.

Make today mean something. In stark contrast to the spirit of barbecues or fireworks shows who might be attending today, when the founders signed the Declaration of Independence on this day 246 years ago, the room was filled with silence and gloom. That's how Benjamin Rush remembered July 4th, 1776. Three and a half

decades later, Rush asked John Adams in a letter, do you recollect the pensive and awful silence

which pervaded the House when we were called up one after another to the table of the

President of Congress to subscribe what many believed at that time

to be our own death warrants. Adams did. No one in the room ever forgot it. For the rest of their

lives, and on the 4th of July especially, they'd recall mutually pledging their life, fortune,

and sacred honor.

If you want to improve your relationship with your kids, one of the best ways you can do that

is by improving your most important relationship, which is your relationship with yourself,

whether it's body issues, whether it's eating issues, whether it's childhood traumas

from early in life, whether it's a work addiction, a drug addiction, whether it's how you see

yourself and that affects how you act in your marriage, right? Dealing with your own issues will make

you a better parent. And I think the best way to do that is with therapy. BetterHelp Online Therapy, the sponsor of today's podcast, wants to remind you to take care of your most important relationship, the one you have with yourself. Better Help Online Therapy offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. You don't even have to see anyone on camera. Definitely don't have to see anyone in person if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy, and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy. Daily Dad listeners will get 10% off their first month, BetterHelp.com

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And so if after the barbecue and fireworks today, you asked your kids what the 4th of July is

all about, what would they say? Would they know about the

revolutionary war? Would they know about the causes the founders were willing to die for? And would

they also know how woefully short they were of those ideas in theory? And the work and sacrifice

and selflessness that's gone in to making them a little bit closer to reality.

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