Most of us have told ourselves at some point that we reacted the way we did because we love our kids. In this episode I share a specific moment from a trip to Arizona with my son that forced me to see clearly — for the first time — that what I was calling love was actually fear in disguise. We get into how fear based parenting shows up in real life, what the Buddhist concept of metta teaches us about the difference between conditional and unconditional love in parenting, and what it actually looks and feels like to catch yourself in the middle of a reactive moment before it escalates.

What We Cover:

• A real story from a daddy and son trip to Arizona that illustrates the difference between fear driven parenting and love driven parenting in a single moment
• How fear shows up practically in my home with a fourteen year old and a four year old and why it is so easy to mislabel it as anger
• The Buddhist concept of metta — love and kindness — and how applying it deliberately to parenting changes the motivation behind everything you do
• The difference between conditional love in parenting and unconditional love and why your ego is usually driving the conditional version
• Why the reaction time between something happening and your awareness of it is the real measure of growth as a father
• The baseball outfield analogy — what it feels like when you have done enough inner work to catch reactive moments before they escalate
• How journaling, silence, and reflection actually build the awareness muscle over time

Resources

 Free Shadow Work and Inner Child Guide for Dads: https://threesixfivedad.kit.com/innershadow

365 Dad Journal: https://www.threesixfivedad.com/products/365-dad-journal-physical

 Work With Me 1:1: https://www.threesixfivedad.com/pages/1-1-coaching-service

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