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 what they want, but this is what they need.

They just bit their brother. They just failed their math test. They

scratched the car. They did something wrong and you're upset. And now they're lying to you or

throwing a tantrum or acting completely belligerent. What's going on? It's something really simple,

honestly. Something very human too. It's the same thing that

makes you reflexively lie or dodge responsibility on something. What they want, what we so often want

when we've done something wrong and got caught is for that to have not have happened. They want

not to have bit their sibling. They wish that they

hadn't listened to their friend. They wish they had studied. Just as you wish that you had

read that paperwork a little bit more closely, just as you wish that you hadn't eaten that

pack of Oreos, just as you wish that you hadn't made that inappropriate comment.

Of course, these wishes don't mean anything.

They're a waste of time.

All we can do what we have to teach our kids is that once it's happened, it's too late.

Yelling, hiding, lying, pretending, it doesn't do anything.

The only option is to take responsibility, to step up, to face facts, to learn, to apologize.

We can't change what's happened.

You can only move forward.

You can only grow.

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