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 owe them this. You know your kids are good. You've seen their sweetness, their cuteness since the beginning.

You've seen them try. You've seen them feel shame when they messed up. You know how hard it is to be a

person, let alone a kid in this world. Life is frustrating. Life is tough. Life is full of temptations.

It's easy to make mistakes. It's easy to get overwhelmed. You know all this,

yet how often is it reflected in how you treat them? Or how you treat situations involving them,

the vase they broke, the lie they told, the test they failed, the punch they threw.

As Dr. Becky writes in her amazing book, Good Inside, a must read, when we look at something our kids did or said we should ask ourselves this question.

What is my most generous interpretation of what just happened?

When you ask this question, she says you'll notice yourself softening and your interactions will get better.

They're sad that they didn't get included.

They're tired, as we've talked about

before, or they're hungry. This is why they're acting the way they're acting. They were trying to be

careful. They were trying to do what you asked, but they're clumsy and easily distracted. They're just

being a kid. They're just trying to have fun, and they don't yet fully understand the consequences

of their actions. They're a teenager

full of hormones making them crazy. Approaching our kids with the most generous interpretation

doesn't mean you excuse everything or that you never hold them accountable for anything.

It just means that you give them the benefit of the doubt. You start from the place that you should be starting from,

which is that your kids are good inside.

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