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.

Yet don't be too tough.

As we've talked about, you have to toughen your kids up. No one is well

served by parents who are soft, who let them be soft. But at the same time, many a tough

parent has had to come to terms with the fact that every kid is different and needs different

things. The great chesty puller, maybe the toughest marine of all time, had to figure out

how to best work

with his son, Lewis, who wore glasses and was sensitive and not naturally athletic. Did that mean

he gave up on him? No, of course not. But neither did he bully or browbeat his son. Kato, the elder,

designed all sorts of challenges for his son Marcus. But as Plutarch writes, he had to account

for the fact that his son was his own person. Since his body was not strong enough to endure the

extreme hardship, we're told, Cato was obliged to relax a little the extraordinary austerity and

self-discipline of his own way of life, as it should be. We don't raise tough kids by

inflicting pain on them. We raise tough kids by teaching them, lovingly, patiently,

understandingly how to grow past their limits. Still, we must respect those limits. We realize

that each of us has different strengths, different weaknesses, and in appreciating that,

we find ways to develop them into their own and unique special self.

We create challenges for them, but we are not the challenge.

No, we are their ally.

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