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.

This is the enemy. You're distracted because this weird work email just came in.

You're in a bad mood because of something

you saw. And what happens? Well, your kids get the brunt of it or they only get 50% of dad at

dinner because you're home but not really home. You lose your temper because you were in the

middle of finishing something up. You lie and say you're watching, but really you're paying attention to what's on TV. You're feeling off because of something

somebody said to you. You haven't been on top of stuff because you're in a funk. Preoccupation is the

enemy of good parenting. And the worst part, kids can sense it. They act out when they can see

or distracted. They sense your energy.

They are simultaneously sponges and mirrors. Unflattering ones at that. When they make a mess,

bite their brother, dye their hair pink, that's what is happening. The sad truth is that most of what

we're preoccupied with doesn't even matter. We give the jerk at the office

free space in our head. We choose to be on Twitter and doomscroll. We don't need to check our

email as much as we do worrying about money never solves our money problems. We have to push all

that away so we can be present, so we can be patient, so we can do our jobs, so we can be parents.

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