The Daily Dad

The amount of choices we have today is not normal. Certainly, it’s quite new. When you were a kid–which was not that long ago–there were how many channels on TV? Even cable, which radically expanded that number, was still finite and nothing compared to streaming. There was no infinite scroll…YouTube only rolled out autoplay at the end of videos in the last decade. And this is only discussing what we watch–there is essentially an unlimited choice in what we listen to, who we date, where we travel, what we eat.

In a recent episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, the filmmaker Casey Neistat was talking about how in his family, they’ve taken to watching movies on a big television in their family room or bedroom because the iPads were overwhelming and causing problems.

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When they’re young, when they’re asleep, when they’re older, when you’re old, when you’re on vacation, after a big Thanksgiving meal, early in the morning before school, in the afternoons when you’re visiting their new family, there’s one thing you should do with your kids:

We’ve talked about John Adams (the great McCullough bio is at The Painted Porch) and his fascinating relationship with his brilliant son John Quincy.

Ryan Holiday dedicated a chapter to the value of walking in his best-selling book Stillness is the Key. You can grab signed and personalized copies here.

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On this weekend episode of the Daily Dad,  Ryan talks with his wife Samantha on being the model for our kids and the ultimate skill on the ability to handle frustration. 

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By now, you’ve almost certainly lost count of how many questions you’ve been asked by your kids. From the moment they can talk, that’s what fatherhood is—answering questions. Some you can’t wait for them to ask, some you hope they’ll never ask (or ask their mom), some so absurdly, brilliantly child-like you never could have guessed they were coming in a million years.

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In 1940, as Nazi bombs rained down on London, an observer noted the contrasts between the “natural splendor and human vileness.” This idea (which inspired Erik Larson’s wonderful book The Splendid and the Vile) would be born out over the next several months–not just the bombs falling in one of the world’s great cities, but also the human resilience and heroism in response to such villainy and evil.

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In the moment, it seemed like a big deal. In the moment, you just needed them to understand your concerns. In the moment, the phone was ringing. In the moment, you were overwhelmed. In the moment, you were worried something might happen. In the moment, you had other plans.

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Wouldn’t it be nice if everything was simple and straightforward? That’s what we’d like the job of a parent to be. We’d like there to be a blueprint that laid out exactly what we have to do and when we have to do it in order to guarantee that all our parental i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

Of course, life isn’t remotely like that.


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There are parents who pay for music lessons so their kids can play an instrument. There are parents who tutor their kids in a foreign language. There are parents who teach their kids how to do all sorts of things–to start a campfire, to change a flat tire, to sew a button.

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On this episode of the Daily Dad Podcast, Ryan talks to Paul Kix about enjoying the time we do have with our kids, while being self-conscious of what we call work during family settings.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald knew the long term damage of being spoiled rotten. Not only was he a prime and painful example himself—as we’ve written about—but as he observed and studied the rich men and women of the Jazz Age, he saw how indulgent people quickly became the “careless” monsters that he portrayed in The Great Gatsby.

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