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.

Why this is so important. This is just my personality, we say. I just don't have any energy

from when I get home from work, we complain. I'm in a bad mood today, that's all. My parents

weren't any different and I turned out okay. It's just a stressful period right now. They're young,

they won't remember any of this. All lies, all excuses, all holding the potential to cause terrible pain. In his beautiful

and vulnerable memoir, Bruce Springsteen talks years later about how his father's mood and issues affected him.

As a boy, he said, I just figured it was the way men were, distant, uncommunicative, busy with the currents of the grown-up world.

As a child, you don't question your parents' choices. You accept them. They are justified by the

godlike status of parenthood. If you aren't spoken to, you're not worth the time. If you're not

greeted with love and affection, you haven't earned it. If you're ignored, you don't exist.

It breaks your heart,

and each of us is doing some version of that to our own kids right now. Our moods and choices

and the examples we set are affecting them always, changing how they see the world and how they

see themselves. It's making them feel better or worse, worthwhile, or worthless, safe, or vulnerable.

A little fellow follows you.

Remember that.

The decision to shut down emotionally doesn't just impact you.

The decision to over commit, the decision to be gone, the decision to hold on to resentments,

the decision not to take care of yourself, the decision to hold them to unfair standards,

...