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.

The little things you have to do that they won't even notice.

We do all sorts of things for our kids.

We make grand gestures and do small favors.

We clothe them and make sure their favorite pants are clean for Spirit Day.

We feed them and make sure their favorite snack is in their lunchbox.

We get up in the middle of the night to go pick them up if they call.

We stay up into the night when they don't.

We'd sell our kidney if they needed it, and we'd mortgage our house for their college tuition.

Some of these gestures, these statements of our love are big and noticeable and unmistakable.

They're dramatic and their urgency and

presentation, but most aren't. Many happen silently in the background. Some we wouldn't even

want credit for as someone offered. There is a brilliant and touching example of this in Meg Mason's

beautiful book, sorrow and bliss, which you can pick up in the Painted Porch Bookshop,

and I had her on the Daily Soap podcast a while ago. Martha, the main character,

struggled with crippling depression as a child. Her parents weren't perfect. They

seemed to barely notice how hard of a time she was having. Did they know she was suicidal?

Her dad was kind of a failed writer, but he always seemed to be hanging around.

He had been leaving the house so rarely it was strange to see him making any kind of preparation

to go out, Mason writes. Even when my mother told him to or Ingrid, her sister begged him

...