“This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/dailydad and get on your way to being your best self.” On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks with his wife Samantha on the emotional neglect that comes with using kids for social media, t he culture of Christmas being stressful, not letting work or expectations become the main thing along with self awareness and communication. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: ...
Dec 23, 2023•14 min•Ep. 1231
Theodore Roosevelt lived an incredible life. He was an author. A naturalist. A rancher. A police chief. A cowboy. A hunter. A governor. A soldier. A president. An explorer. A philanthropist. And that’s probably not even close to an exhaustive list. His life was full of activity. It was full of adventure. It was marked by triumph and adversity to overcome. It’s worth telling your kids the story of Theodore Roosevelt to inspire them for the same reason that Theodore Roosevelt’s parents made sure...
Dec 22, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1230
There is a beautiful passage in The Velveteen Rabbit where the young rabbit asks one of the seasoned old toys in the playroom whether ‘becoming real’—the process of being changed by the love of a child—is something that has to do with how a toy is made. Is it about having certain parts, he asked? Does it require a certain makeup? "Real isn't how you are made," says the toy horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY lo...
Dec 21, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1229
Beauty to the Stoics was far deeper than appearances. “If your choices are beautiful,” Epictetus said, “so too will you be.” It’s simple and it’s true. You are what your choices make you, nothing more and nothing less. Isn’t this what we try to teach our kids? That, yes of course, we love them unconditionally and unequivocally, and have since the moment they were born, but they have this incredible power to choose what kind of person they’re going to be. The reason we read to them, the reason we...
Dec 20, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1228
Each of us is responsible for what we do as parents, but we’re also responsible for the dynamic that exists in our homes and in our relationships. Just because you’re the nice one, just because you do the repairing, just because you’re not as hard on your kids—that doesn’t mean that you’re not complicit in the stress or strain that’s being inflicted. It’s our job to create a safe and loving and supportive home. We can’t make excuses— Oh, he’s just under stress at work. Oh, that’s what she learne...
Dec 19, 2023•5 min•Ep. 1227
There’s no question Hemingway was a great writer. He was the voice of a generation—The Lost Generation. He redefined prose style in the English language. His books have sold millions of copies. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He wrote beautifully on love and family ( A Farewell to Arms ). He wrote beautifully on struggle and perseverance ( The Old Man and the Sea ). He was also a pretty awful husband and father. As one of his sons said, to Hemingway “fami...
Dec 18, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1226
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks to American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, director, producer, and podcaster Whitney Cummings on self-awareness, the ability to update the script, and the impressions we leave on our children. IG, X, and Tiktok: @WhitneyCummings To follow her on OnlyFans @Whitney ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Dec 16, 2023•17 min•Ep. 1225
It can be hard to express your feelings as a father sometimes. Not so much because men are expected to bottle up their emotions, but because the emotions that come with being a dad can be so overwhelming and complex. It’s a rush of a million feelings: love, joy, fear, absurdity, exhaustion, responsibility, motivation, and primal attachment. No one prepared you for any of this…and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever dealt with before. How do you express it? How do you let your family know what they ...
Dec 15, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1224
A parent is only as happy as their unhappiest child , goes the expression. And even if that wasn’t true, even if it didn’t directly impact our own happiness, would any of us want our children to be unhappy? Of course not. We love them so much . The last thing we want is for them to feel pain. We want their lives to be wonderful. We want them to have fun . We want them to have a great life. We want them to be happy! There’s nothing wrong with this…except that oftentimes trying to make someone hap...
Dec 14, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1223
He was a young man fresh out of the Naval Academy and a stint in the submarine service. He was being interviewed by Admiral Hyman Rickover for a coveted spot in the nuclear program. Then he got the question that changed his life. “How did you stand in your class at the academy?” Rickover asked. “Sir, I stood 59th in a class of 820,” future president Jimmy Carter answered. “But did you do your best?” Rickover asked. And when Carter could not honestly answer that he has always done his best, Ricko...
Dec 13, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1222
We wanted it so badly and we never got it. We still haven’t got it. Dad was withholding, dad was hard to please—we wanted to make him proud, but we just couldn’t. That’s partly why we’re working so hard today. There’s some part of us that thinks if we can just accomplish enough, make enough money, win enough awards, surpass him then maybe, finally, we’ll get that begrudging pat on the back. We’ll get him to acknowledge us. He’ll let us know he respects us, loves us, and appreciates us. But someh...
Dec 12, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1221
There are things you would have never done before. You’d never have sung a crazy song in public. You’d never have painted your nails. You would have vomited before you sucked snot out of someone’s nose ( as Hasan Minhaj did ). You’d have rather starved than put on a McUniform and work extra hours at some job you hate. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Dec 11, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1220
“This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/dailydad and get on your way to being your best self.” On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad Podcast, Ryan reminds us to raise a resilient child by resisting the urge to intervene, helping them manage their emotions, showing them that everything thing can be figured out, and lastly leading by example. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTu...
Dec 10, 2023•14 min•Ep. 1219
We’ve talked about this before : Being a father is a second chance. It’s a fresh start. It’s an obligation to work on yourself so your kids pick up where you’ve left off, benefiting from the struggle and progress you have made. You can’t pass them the baton of your weaknesses and flaws. You cannot let them be worse than you. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Dec 08, 2023•5 min•Ep. 1218
No one is the parent they want to be. That’s the bad news. The good news is that most of us are better parents than we were. We’ve talked a lot about the big choice we all have to make . Are we just somebody who has kids? Or are we a parent? And while this is a choice, it’s also more of an aspiration. You don’t magically, suddenly become the perfect parent. How could you? There’s so much you don’t know , so many lessons you haven’t learned, so many gifts you haven’t been given yet. So much stu...
Dec 07, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1217
Most times, we’re in need of all the help we can get. We read parenting books, or watch parenting videos, trying to find those keys to make our lives just a little bit easier. That’s why we created the Daily Dad email, after all. Seneca said that we ought to acquire one thing per day – whether that’s a quote, a story, a relationship that makes us better, it doesn’t matter. We try to deliver that one thing in each email. But of course, we couldn’t do it alone. When trying to deliver that one thin...
Dec 06, 2023•7 min•Ep. 1216
We’ve been talking about Dr. Becky’s wonderful book Good Inside recently (a must read!), and she has a great little section where she’s talking about a parent who ends up having to pick up and physically remove their child from a situation where they are hitting their younger sibling. There’s guilt and frustration and fear and so much that comes up in these situations. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Dec 05, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1215
It’s dark stuff. It’s not pleasant. We wish it wasn’t true. But that doesn’t mean we can hide it from our children. Because it did happen. And it can easily happen again if we’re not careful. John G. Burnett knew this. That’s why on his birthday in 1890, he finally told his children what happened when he was in the army in 1838. He told them what he saw at what’s become known as the Trail of Tears. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebo...
Dec 04, 2023•6 min•Ep. 1214
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks with his wife Samantha on understanding the alternatives later and making the decision, while teaching our children the correct instincts while their away from home. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Dec 03, 2023•16 min•Ep. 1213
It does work. We have to concede that. For generations, some parents have tried withholding praise, withholding pride, withholding approval so that their kids don’t feel entitled to it. The idea is that this will make them hungry, make them really work for it. No participation trophies here! You’ve got to earn it in my house! ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Dec 01, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1212
Harry Truman was not a good businessman. The clothing shop he opened with a friend was a disaster—and he was paying off the debts through his senate career and into his presidency. Most of his investments were flops. He had to sell off chunks of his mother’s farm when they couldn’t pay the mortgage. After he left office, the only safety net he had was his army pension. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Nov 30, 2023•5 min•Ep. 1211
We know what we want our kids to say about us when they grow up. We want them to say that we were great parents , that we did our best. We want them to say that they knew they were loved. We want them to say that they love spending time with us–especially now that they’re older and they have a choice. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Nov 29, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1210
We want happy kids, obviously. But as we talked about recently, you can’t make your kids happy. Certainly, you can’t always keep them happy. So what do you do? There’s a great exchange between Epictetus (we recommend his Discourses ) and one of his students. The student is asking Epictetus to show him what to do so he can be wise and successful. This is the wrong request, Epictetus says. It would be better to ask how to be adaptable to circumstances. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad....
Nov 28, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1209
Being a parent doesn’t mean you give up on your dreams. We’ve talked about this many times . What kind of message would it send to your kids to see their parents quit on themselves? What kind of house is it to grow up in where Mom or Dad aren’t growing, changing, aren’t taking risks, aren’t fulfilled? And yet, we also understand that it’s not about us anymore. Before, sure, we could take every risk and pursue every opportunity. But things are different now. There are people counting on us, peopl...
Nov 27, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1208
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks with his wife Samantha on breaking constraints, finding the solution to the problem, and the impacts on their household reflecting through parenting. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Nov 25, 2023•16 min•Ep. 1207
It’s a world with too many problems. It’s a world with too much suffering. It’s a world with too much selfishness. We can’t fix all of this as people nor as parents. But we can try to help a little. We’ve talked before about Ron Lieber’s clever description for the goal of most parents. We’re trying, he says, to raise kids who are “the opposite of spoiled.” (he has a book of the same name ). That is to say, kids who are not just self-sufficient, but have energy and resources left over to help oth...
Nov 24, 2023•5 min•Ep. 1206
Things could be so much better. This could be a world that takes care of parents and families. It could be a world with a better safety net. It could be a world where we don’t shrug after a school shooting, or as democracy is dismantled by fanatics and nut-jobs. We could use more support. Inflation could come down. Your spouse could get their act together. Things could be better, they should be better. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Fa...
Nov 23, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1205
Kids have always been like this. They’ve always been crazy . Always had trouble sleeping at night. Always liked to play and explore. They’ve been overwhelmed by hormones. They’ve been driving their parents crazy a long time. We talked a while back about Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Children’s Games painting which depicts a loud and raucous scene of kids playing outside. It’s 463 years old and yet, with a few exceptions, it resembles almost exactly what the kids in your neighborhood were doing la...
Nov 22, 2023•4 min•Ep. 1204
It’s easy to forget it when you see them hitting a sibling. Or when you catch them in a lie. When you hear them say something mean. When the call comes in from school, or worse, the police station. It’s easy to forget that our kids are good. That they have good morals. A good heart. That they are still that same innocent and pure little thing we brought home from the hospital. It’s easy to forget because we’re so worried, so worried that our sweet innocent and pure thing will end up like most of...
Nov 21, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1203
We used to need so much to be happy, as we talked about recently . We needed things to go well. We needed excitement and success. We needed people to like us. We needed people’s approval. But now? Now, not so much. Conan O’Brien, who like any performer has some part of him that craves attention and validation, has explained how his insecurity has lessened as he got older and had a family. “Oh as long as they’re alright,” he has said of his kids, then basically everything is right. ✉️ Sign up for...
Nov 20, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1202
