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.

You can't lose track.

Nothing takes up space in a parent's head or heart quite like a kid who is struggling.

You're only as happy as your unhappiest child. The expression goes, and it's true. If one of your kids is

struggling with reading, with adjusting to a new school or a city, with becoming a teenager,

with the divorce, with some health issue, it's hard

to focus or think about anything else, even if you're crushing it at work, even if one of your

other kids just made the honor roll or the varsity team. It's understandable, but it's also not

acceptable. Mary Laura Philpont spoke about this in her beautiful book, Bomb Shelter, which we have written about before.

One night her son had an epileptic seizure, which shocked and overwhelmed the family.

Only after the fear and the emergency of the moment had slightly worn off did it occur to her that she had forgotten about her daughter as all this was happening.

There's an almost inevitable failure built into caring

for two people during a moment when one is in crisis and one is not. Because while you may love

these people equally with a fierceness unique to each, you must throw your arms out to catch

the one who is falling, and that means you are not there to catch the other should they fall too.

Obviously, when one of your children is having a seizure, that demands your full attention,

at least until medical treatment arise. But what about when one of your children is depressed

or has attention issues or is wrestling with their sexuality or going through a divorce or

cancer treatment or playing in the Super Bowl? The fact that your other children are having an easier time that things are not as

...