One thing we know for certain is that our kids will go through things. They’ll have a crisis of identity, of faith, of social status. They’ll be overwhelmed. They’ll be confused. They’ll have questions. They’ll doubt themselves . ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks with one of his favorite writers Austin Kleon on Parenting strategies before and after writing a book, and Creativity within your household. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
We know that our kids want to feel good, feel safe, feel loved. We know they want to feel that someone is proud of them, that they’re talented, that they’re worth something. We also know that they’ll want to have fun, take risks, mess up, be crazy, and feel the pleasures of the world. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
It matters far less what a person does in life than how they do it. An exploitative corporate executive might have an expense account and a fancy title, but we all admire the hardworking and selfless teacher more. And we certainly acknowledge that, whatever the differences in salary, one contributes far more to society. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Unless you are currently in line for a hereditary throne, it’s unlikely your children will ever be a king or a queen. This is a good thing, as it seems like both a thankless and toxic job–to say nothing of its effectiveness as a form of government. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Few of us felt completely understood as kids. At a young age, our parents didn’t quite understand what we were saying, what we wanted, how much we missed them when they were gone, how scared we were when we were alone. When we got older, they didn’t seem to remember just how hard it was to be a teenager, how overwhelming the world was, how different we felt from others, how behind we sometimes felt ( as we wrote recently ). And now as adults, we struggle too–maybe our spouse doesn’t fully get us...
We put our family first. That’s what we believe. That’s what we say. That’s the first commandment in the Daily Stoic Parenting Challenge . That’s the advice we give other parents. That’s effectively what we tell our kids too: You’re the most important thing in the world to me. And then almost every single day, in countless ways, we fail to live up to those words. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Happy Father’s Day to everyone! It’s pretty incredible how concise Marcus Aurelius is throughout Meditations . There are nearly 500 passages throughout, and rarely is a passage longer than a few sentences. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks with his wife Samantha on setting our kids and ourselves up for success, creating space by doing less and building the confidence to remain consistent. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
The point is not to get good grades. The point is not a good score on their SATs. It’s not about what college they get into. College is not about what kind of job they can snag. Success in school is not succeeding in school . ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Think of all the stuff you know. The skills you have. The movie quotes you can throw out there mid-conversation. It’s interesting, isn’t it? You remember more from a two-hour movie than from the museums you were dragged to. You learned more from Wikipedia rabbit holes you fell down than you do from a couple decades in school. What’s that about? ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Of course, her father would have preferred to be powerful, to be wealthy, to hold some prestigious position. He didn’t want to dig sewage canals or wait on entitled aristocrats. He didn’t want to be at the bottom of Rome’s social hierarchy. Nobody would choose that life. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Some of the things your kids think are ridiculous–products of their imagination or their fears. Some of the things they like are hilarious and weird–the products of their own uniqueness, products of just not knowing better. Some of the feelings they have are not your fault–again, they have imaginations and fears. Some of their feelings are products of mistakes you’ve made, flaws you have. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTu...
Nobody would have wanted Joseph Kennedy to be their dad. He was an avaricious businessman. He cheated on his wife. He had his daughter lobotomized and sent away. He was controlling and manipulative. He saw his kids as extensions of himself. As we wrote recently , one of the only reasons Robert F. Kennedy turned out differently than his siblings is that he was mostly ignored and left alone by his parents, saving him from the ordeals of some of his brothers. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: Dai...
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks with his wife Samantha on screen time & the differences in parenting moods in the morning. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
When your kids mess up, what’s your reaction? Do you freak out? Or are you calm? Do you make the situation better...or worse? Can you actually listen? Or are you halfway through a solution before they’ve even gotten two words of explanation out of their mouths? ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
It was a long time ago. It was in a pretty conservative place, in a less understanding era. And even if it wasn’t, even in different circumstances, no parent wants to walk in to see their teenager making out with someone in their room. But in this case, a mom had been stunned to find her daughter on top of the covers with her daughter’s best girl friend. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
There’s something that strikes us as a little gross, the way politicians trot out their families to win elections, to humanize themselves or get sympathy when they screw up. There’s something exploitative about the way celebrities use pregnancy announcements or events in their kids’ life to get publicity. And there’s something plain weird about the way that some influencers turn their kids into content. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , F...
Sometimes it feels like it would be easier if they just did what we wanted. If they could sit there for a second, as we try to handle something. If they could just pose for the photo. If they could keep the clothes we got them nice and clean. If they would play the role we hoped for, fulfill the dreams we have for them–go to the school, get the job we pick, have the wedding we plan for them in our fantasy. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram ...
Education these days seems to be about signals. What did you get on your SATs? How many AP classes did you take? What schools did you apply to? What extracurriculars did you practice? Even some of the modern strain of political correctness, critics have said, is really just a way for people to prove that they are more educated than other people–that they were taught the right words for this and that. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Face...
On this episode of the Daily Dad Podcast, Ryan talks to Sam Gwynne about new parenting advice, the youth building a community around mental health, and the pressures of matching the expectations. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
There are different kinds of rich families. There are families that have lots of money. There are families that have lots of time together. Sometimes these families are the same…too often they are not. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
We’re always losing our kids. In fact, we’re raising them to lose them–every minute, every interaction is building towards that moment when they will leave and live their own life. We’re raising them knowing that one day we will leave them for good too . Plus there is the fact that, as the Stoics says, we’re constantly changing , ceasing to become who we once were–and nowhere is this truer than with our children, who will never be 1 or 2 or 3 or 13 ever again. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email:...
Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius’ adopted father and predecessor, was not a Stoic. He didn’t identify as, nor did anyone call him, a philosopher. He left behind no writings. There are no anecdotes of him dropping in on lectures in Greece or studying under some guru. And yet, of all the people in Marcus’ life, Antoninus was the most Stoic. He was cool under pressure. He quietly went about his business. He was hard-working, self-sufficient, and never got worked up. He was a beloved leader. His mere...
From his dad, Bruce Springsteen learned about shame, about broken pride, and struggling with demons that you can’t quite conquer. It’s an all too common story, unfortunately. The lack of a strong role model leaves a void that haunts a kid forever, even long after they leave the house. You can hear that pain in Springsteen’s songs today . ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Once, on an imperial tour in some distant province, a woman darted out from the crowd and blocked the path of the Emperor Hadrian, asking for help with some now-forgotten issue. Hadrian tried to put her off. “I haven’t got the time,” he said, attempting to move past her. “Well stop being emperor then!” the woman shouted after him. Hadrian paused, turned back and helped her. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad, Ryan talks to Tamron Hall about his new book release, more wholesome moments while in NYC, and how "Sharing Sucks" when dealing with two year olds. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
It happened again. Your kid screwed up. They did something stupid—from drawing on the walls to getting caught drinking. They hurt someone or they lied. They failed a test or broke something important. You’re pissed. You want to yell . But before we do that, stop and think: Have you raised a good kid? Have you taught them right from wrong? Have you taught them to care about other people and the truth? Yes, yes you have. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter...
Plutarch recorded the story that Socrates went to the fanciest neighborhood in Athens and called out, “What are you doing, men? You are giving all possible attention to acquiring money, but small thought to your sons to whom you are to leave it.” As Socrates pointed out, money is just one piece of the legacy puzzle. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com 📱 Follow Daily Dad: Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube...
Those white shoes your parents told you to keep off the grass, the khakis they wanted you to keep clean on Easter. The car they didn’t let you eat in, the walls they told you not to mess up with your posters. Where is all that now? The shoes are long since thrown away, the pants outgrown, handed down and then finally tossed by someone. The walls have been repainted many times over. Even the car, by this point, is probably a squashed metal cube in a junkyard–and if it isn’t, the person driving it...
