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.

They need to experience this. Seneca was born into a wealthy family. His father was a well-known writer

in order whose family immigrated from Spain into the aristocracy of the Roman Empire,

and in time Seneca would go on to earn his own fortune in politics. So as you might expect,

as a father and as a philosopher,

he had some strong thoughts about raising kids amidst privilege and wealth, because that's no simple

thing. And it's better than the opposite, of course, but it comes with its own challenges.

And in one essay, Seneca gives us a prescription about how to balance the success we might have

or hope to have financially, and how to keep that from spoiling our kids or sapping them of motivation.

As Seneca writes, we ought to keep him far beyond the reach of luxury, for nothing makes children

more prone to anger than a soft and fond upbringing.

He to whom nothing is ever denied will not be able to endure a rebuff, whose anxious mother always wipes away his tears,

who others are made to pay for his shortcomings, do you not observe how a man's anger becomes

more violent as he rises in station? this shows itself especially in those who are rich

and noble, when the favoring gale has roused all the most empty and trivial passions of their minds.

In short, we want our kids' lives to be good, but we don't want them to be too good.

As Seneca also said, there is no one more unfortunate than the person who

passes through life without difficulty, because no one can ever know what they are capable of,

not even themselves. Remember, lookner at Emergo. There is no growth without struggle. So let them

struggle. Know what it means to want, but not always to have.

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