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. Thank you for

listening, and we hope this helps. They can't understand. Look, there's just no way your kids can

understand. It's impossible for a person that is young

that's free of responsibilities to comprehend what it feels like to be a parent, to have your

heart running around outside your body. How could they possibly conceive what it's like to

worry all the time that something bad might happen. How could they know

what it's like to feel impotent in the face of all that's wrong in the world? How could they know

all the things that we have to manage to keep them safe, happy, and moving forward? They can't,

which means it's more than a little baffling when you're short with them,

when you won't let them run ahead and get to the playground, when you grab them hard in the

parking lot because they got excited and stopped listening, when you're hard on them about their

grades, when you're a wreck at the airport. These emotions don't register to them as coming

from a place of concern. They don't register as coming

from anywhere. To a kid, to a teenager, intentions are irrelevant. All they can feel is the outcome.

All they can feel is the energy. They don't like it. It sucks. It scares them and it hurts them.

You have to understand that they don't understand, that they can

never understand just as you didn't until they were born. So you have to calm down. You have to get a

handle on yourself and your nerves. You have to communicate with them. You have to explain

over and over and over again how much you love them, how much you are trying

to protect them. You have to explain the reasons for your concern. But most of all, you have to come

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