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.

June 3rd, transcend this bitter math. When you get married, you give away 50% of your life.

The novelist Susan Strait was warned by her mother. What about the other half? A young

Susan asked hopefully, when you have a baby, you give away the other half. Her mother replied,

matter-of-factly.

Yikes. Yes, marriage and relationships are hard, and in the past, they've been particularly and oppressively cruel to women. For all time, having kids has forced parents to make changes.

They deprive us of sleep and money and freedoms we used to take for

granted. But does that mean we have to lose ourselves, lose all of our freedom? Absolutely not.

We can transcend this bitter math by working on ourselves and our relationships, by asking for help,

by refusing to give up on dreams, even as we get older,

by focusing on all the things that marriage and kids give us to all the experiences we've gained

and the opportunities created. To quit on ourselves is to quit on our kids, and it's teaching

them a terrible lesson.

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