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're always right, you know. Kids say a lot of nonsense, as parents know. They talk about

monsters under the bed. They talk about superpowers. They tell you that they hate pancakes,

even though you just heard them beg for pancakes, and you watch them down a short stack two

days earlier. And it's funny, just as you start tuning them out, they'll get you. They'll say

they see a dog riding a tricycle out the window, and you'll nod and say, sure, you start tuning them out, they'll get you. They'll say they see a dog

riding a tricycle out the window and you'll nod and say, sure, you do, bud. And then 20 minutes

later, I'll be damned. You will see a dog riding a tricycle out the window. What is that about?

Well, it certainly keeps us on our toes. The point is, we ignore our kids at our peril, and we tend to ignore them because we

think we know everything at our peril. Our kids might be ridiculous. They might be wrong all the time.

They may well be inveterate liars, and yet somehow they need to be listened to very closely.

When they say there is something under the bed, we should actually check. When they say their high school teacher is a creeper out to get them, we shouldn't write them off. When they say they don't feel good, we should listen, even if there is a risk that they're just trying to get out of soccer practice. When they throw a fit or act out, we should listen to, if not to understand what they're freaking out about, then to figure out what might actually be wrong.

And more importantly, for our own growth as parents and people,

we should listen to our kids.

We shouldn't ignore them because they see things we don't.

They look at the world in a way maybe we used to and have forgotten.

And theirs is a reality check of the best kind.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Daily Dad podcast.

If you can get this via email every day as well at Daily Dad.com,

please leave us a review in iTunes.

...