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.

Rules are important.

You didn't like rules when you were a kid.

Your parents had too many. Your school was a prison of pointless arbitrary ones, how you could dress, when you could go to the bathroom, how you had to hold the pencil. So it makes sense that you're averse to them now, and it's good that you question how many of them matter and you don't want to make the same mistake as adults did in your own childhood. But you do understand there has to be some

rules, right? We've been talking about Bruce Springsteen's strange childhood recently, which was

warped by the grief of his grandparents who mourned the tragic loss of one of their own children.

There were no rules, he explained in the fascinating book, Deliver Me from Nowhere, which is about

the making of the album,

Nebraska, said, I was living a life like I've never heard of a child living, to be honest.

He says he grew up thinking that rules were for the rest of the world. And although this might

seem like a fantasy, it was actually terrible. He talks about how it caused him trouble as a kid

and that it's still haunting him. In fact, he says it destroyed him. And your kids will feel the same way. They need rules.

They need structure, just as you needed them. Not petty pedantic rules, not rules that govern every

facet of their existence, but they need guardrails. They need to know what they can and can't do.

They need to know that it doesn't always go

their way and they can't have everything they want. Because that's life. And if they learn this too late,

well, it might be a great father.

These are meditations inspired by ancient wisdom, psychological research, and just great strategies from

normal dads just like you. Thanks for listening.

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