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 only thing to get put out by.

Jimmy Carter was a pretty buttoned up guy.

He was known even under the stress of the Oval Office to be remarkably poised.

The angriest in aid ever saw him, though, came over a last-minute scheduling change.

It wasn't the poor communication that bothered him. It wasn't that he was going

to be late, something that the ever-punctual Carter despised. It was because his secretary had bumped

Carter's plans to take his daughter to the circus. I've never seen him that put out, an aide

wrote in their diary. He was angry because he knew, as Charles

de Gaulle said, and as we wrote about here, that the presidency was temporary, but family is forever.

Some people might be comfortable putting their loved ones last, assuming that they'll be

the most flexible and forgiving, but Carter wasn't. And neither should we. We get mad if someone

cuts us off in traffic. We get mad if someone screws up something at work. Where is that report I asked for?

We say. We get mad if our flight is delayed, but when something bumps up against a family commitment,

we're way too quick to accommodate, to accept it as the way things have to be.

Well, it doesn't have to be that way. It can't be that way. We have to protect this time. We have to

fight for it. We have to make sure people know where we stand on it. Because if there's anything

to get upset about in this life, it's a missed opportunity to do stuff to people you love.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Daily Dad podcast.

You can get this via email every day as well at Daily Dad.com.

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