Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast.

Every Dad needs a little help, and that's why we made this podcast.

It's one inspiring, philosophically driven, historical-driven, lesson about fatherhood

that you can use to do your most important job a little bit better.

What are your rules? In her memoir composed, Roseanne Cash talks about how she wished she was as a parent of small children

and how different that was from the reality. She recalls that her biggest rule ended up being

no juice after 5 p.m. Why? Something about sugar before bed. In any case, although she knows she did

the best she can, Roseanne looks back and wishes

she had imposed more structure, more rules on her young children. That's something we have to

think about as dads. Part of the job of a parent is to come up with the rules of the house and to

enforce them, and for them to make sense, of course, too. Winging it might seem better, except that means

you're judging every situation in new, deciding in the moment what to allow and what not to.

Letting things slide might seem easier, but the chaos that flows from that is much more

difficult. So what are the rules of your house? What's expected of your kids in terms of chores,

behaviors, and habits? What's forbidden of your kids in terms of chores, behaviors, and habits?

What's forbidden? What don't we do in this house? Are you firm about the rules? Do you make sure that everyone follows them, including yourself? And then crucially, what is the logic behind these

rules and can you explain them in a way that gets real buy-in and understanding?

A father is not a tyrant, but a person who makes arbitrary rules without explaining them is.

So create some rules and stick to them.

Be fair about them.

Your kids might not love them now, but when they look back on their childhood,

they will at least be grateful for the structure and the clarity they provide it.

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