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.

Why, why, why? As a parent, there is no word you hear more.

Why?

Why not?

Why can I?

Why do I have to?

Why does it work like that?

Why, why?

Why?

It's annoying to be sure, but you must never discourage this.

As we've said before, so much of what we take for granted as parents and his people is arbitrary and poorly supported.

And perhaps that's because at a young age our own impulse to question and explore was suppressed.

We were not taught, as we've said about Steve Jobs, is to see that most of the rules and limitations of the world have no real basis and logic, reason, or even morality.

When we asked why we were told, because, full stop, we were not encouraged to challenge assumptions,

to question the status quo, to learn why things are the way that they are. Well, let us not continue

this tradition. Let's turn over a new leaf with this generation,

our children's generation, the one we are in charge of raising. Society improves when we ask

questions. Wrongs are righted only when subjected to scrutiny. What is not challenge remains

comfortably ensconced in orthodoxy masquerading as tradition. And this is true even of our own

habits and practices. If we can't provide a meaningful answer to our children's wise, well, that says

...