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The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids
"Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them."-Marcus Aurelius
Becoming a parent is more than just a biological process – it's a lifelong commitment to sacrifice, service, and most importantly, love. It's a challenge to get up every day and put your kids first. You will experience moments of heroic compassion and humiliating failure, sometimes within the same day.
But you don't have to do it alone. From Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash hit The Daily Stoic, The Daily Dad provides 366 timeless meditations on parenting in a few manageable paragraphs a day – useful for even the most sleep deprived new parent.
Drawing on his own experience as a father of two as well as lessons from the lives of legends such as Theodore Roosevelt, Bruce Springsteen, Queen Elizabeth II, Marcus Aurelius, and Toni Morrison, this daily devotional provides wisdom and guidance on being the role model your child needs. Whether you're expecting your first or already a grandparent, The Daily Dad offers encouragement, perspective, and practical advice for every stage of your child's life.
Becoming a parent is more than just a biological process – it's a lifelong commitment to sacrifice, service, and most importantly, love. It's a challenge to get up every day and put your kids first. You will experience moments of heroic compassion and humiliating failure, sometimes within the same day.
But you don't have to do it alone. From Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash hit The Daily Stoic, The Daily Dad provides 366 timeless meditations on parenting in a few manageable paragraphs a day – useful for even the most sleep deprived new parent.
Drawing on his own experience as a father of two as well as lessons from the lives of legends such as Theodore Roosevelt, Bruce Springsteen, Queen Elizabeth II, Marcus Aurelius, and Toni Morrison, this daily devotional provides wisdom and guidance on being the role model your child needs. Whether you're expecting your first or already a grandparent, The Daily Dad offers encouragement, perspective, and practical advice for every stage of your child's life.
Editorial Reviews
"Make this book a morning ritual." – Matthew McConaughey
"Parenting can be hard. We all want to do right by our kids, but it's easy to get lost in the moment. This book is a simple way to ground us, to force a reflection on the choices we're making, and the ones we want to make. And it's not just for dads." – Emily Oster, bestselling author of Expecting Better and The Family Firm
"Effective parenting often comes down to poignant, memorable moments that shape your child's thinking. This book has the recipe for creating these kinds of moments on the regular, and making the most of them." – Scott Galloway, NYU Stern professor and bestselling author of Adrift
"Parenting can be hard. We all want to do right by our kids, but it's easy to get lost in the moment. This book is a simple way to ground us, to force a reflection on the choices we're making, and the ones we want to make. And it's not just for dads." – Emily Oster, bestselling author of Expecting Better and The Family Firm
"Effective parenting often comes down to poignant, memorable moments that shape your child's thinking. This book has the recipe for creating these kinds of moments on the regular, and making the most of them." – Scott Galloway, NYU Stern professor and bestselling author of Adrift
Readers Top Reviews
SepukuSepuku
Shame about the cover. Looks like someone just shoved it into the envelope without any care for keeping things flat and uncreased.
jamesjames
3 pages into this 1 page a day book and I have to say I already love it , if you like Ryan holidays other books/work and are on the parenting journey you can’t go wrong with this book 😃
LucasEmilydevin podb
The quality of both the content and the physical book itself are not what I expected after enjoying The Daily Stoic over and over for the past few years. It's only been a few days, so I'll come back to update my review if I change my mind, but so far the meditations have felt sort of thrown together, and even the grammar seems off. The physical book itself already feels like it won't stand the test of time. Also, there's no bookmark ribbon. It's a small thing, but it would have nice to match the Daily Stoic's book quality.
Adam Dorfman
Ryan delivers again. What a beautiful way to start my morning - reminders of how to make the best impact I can on the world by making positive impacts on my kids. I just purchased an additional 15 copies to give to friends and family. Only note- I really miss the built in bookmark of Daily Stoic.
Short Excerpt Teaser
January 1
A Little Fellow Follows You
In 1939, nine years before John Wooden would be hired to coach the UCLA men's basketball team, a friend sent him a picture with a poem on it to celebrate the birth of Wooden's first child. The picture is a man on a beach whose son is running behind him, playing in his footsteps in the sand. Wooden hung the picture in his home so he might see it every day. The poem, which he memorized and liked to give as a gift, went as follows:
A careful man I want to be-
a little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray,
for fear he'll go the self-same way.
I cannot once escape his eyes.
Whatever he sees me do he tries.
Like me he says he's going to be-
that little chap who follows me . . .
You don't have to memorize these words as Wooden did, but you better internalize their message. Your sons and your daughters follow behind you. They see everything you do. If you go astray, so too will they.
January 2
Never Let Them See You Act Like This
I think of myself as a philosopher only in the sense of being able to set an example.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
There is a story in Seneca's famous essay "On Anger" about a boy who at a very young age went to live in the house of Plato to study under the famous philosopher. Returning home to visit his parents, the boy witnessed his father lose his temper and yell at someone. Surprised by this violent outburst, and with the simple innocence of a child are capable of, the boy said, "I never saw anyone at Plato's house act like that."
However we conduct ourselves in front of our children-particularly at home, in private-they will come to see as normal. If we are rude or unkind to our spouse, they will assume that is an appropriate way to treat people they love. If we are anxious and overly worried, they will come to think that the world is a scary place that must be feared. If we behave unethically or cynically, they too will begin to cheat and lie.
January 3
Their Faults Are Your Faults
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.
-Robert Fulghum
Your kids can drive you nuts. The way they can push your buttons. The way they can ask an interminable number of questions. The way they can mimic you.
"I love him very dearly I guess because of his faults which are my faults," the novelist John Steinbeck writes of his son. "I know where his pains and his panics come from."
Our kids have our virtues and our vices. That's what makes this whole crazy parenting thing such a wonderful opportunity. Because we are here to help them become the best possible versions of themselves. One of the ways we do that is to help them become like us in all the good ways. But one of the other ways is to prevent them from becoming too much like us in all the bad ways.
It can be an incredibly difficult balancing act if we aren't honest or self-possessed, if we let our egos get in the way. We can't let that happen. This is our chance, our time! To help them. To bolster them. To help them overcome flaws that maybe we never quite got over ourselves. To seize this second chance-to give what we didn't get.
More than that, it's a chance to understand.
January 4
Show Them How to Keep Their Cool
In 1952, Margaret Thatcher's father was driven out of office when a rival political party won a majority in the election. He was upset. He was hurt. And he could have allowed those emotions to drive how he reacted. But he didn't.
Instead, Thatcher's father made a statement of incredible restraint and dignity: "It is now almost nine years since I took up these robes in honor, and now I trust in honor they are laid down." He added later, "Although I have toppled over I have fallen on my feet. My own feeling is that I was content to be in and I am content to be out."
We could say that what he was doing was showing his daughter how to lose with grace. But it was much more than that. He was showing her that external circumstances don't make the man or woman, only how we respond to them. He was showing her how to bear adversity and how to never surrender your poise or self-control. These would all be lessons that Thatcher would use throughout her tumultuous life as a public servant, a prime minister, and a mother.
Your kids will need them too. So show them. Show by example, not just with words. Show them, when you've been screwed over and it really hurts, that still your personal code of conduct matters more. Because it does. Because it will.
January 5
Which Will It Be?
In his Broadway show, Bruce Springsteen explained the cho...
A Little Fellow Follows You
In 1939, nine years before John Wooden would be hired to coach the UCLA men's basketball team, a friend sent him a picture with a poem on it to celebrate the birth of Wooden's first child. The picture is a man on a beach whose son is running behind him, playing in his footsteps in the sand. Wooden hung the picture in his home so he might see it every day. The poem, which he memorized and liked to give as a gift, went as follows:
A careful man I want to be-
a little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray,
for fear he'll go the self-same way.
I cannot once escape his eyes.
Whatever he sees me do he tries.
Like me he says he's going to be-
that little chap who follows me . . .
You don't have to memorize these words as Wooden did, but you better internalize their message. Your sons and your daughters follow behind you. They see everything you do. If you go astray, so too will they.
January 2
Never Let Them See You Act Like This
I think of myself as a philosopher only in the sense of being able to set an example.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
There is a story in Seneca's famous essay "On Anger" about a boy who at a very young age went to live in the house of Plato to study under the famous philosopher. Returning home to visit his parents, the boy witnessed his father lose his temper and yell at someone. Surprised by this violent outburst, and with the simple innocence of a child are capable of, the boy said, "I never saw anyone at Plato's house act like that."
However we conduct ourselves in front of our children-particularly at home, in private-they will come to see as normal. If we are rude or unkind to our spouse, they will assume that is an appropriate way to treat people they love. If we are anxious and overly worried, they will come to think that the world is a scary place that must be feared. If we behave unethically or cynically, they too will begin to cheat and lie.
January 3
Their Faults Are Your Faults
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.
-Robert Fulghum
Your kids can drive you nuts. The way they can push your buttons. The way they can ask an interminable number of questions. The way they can mimic you.
"I love him very dearly I guess because of his faults which are my faults," the novelist John Steinbeck writes of his son. "I know where his pains and his panics come from."
Our kids have our virtues and our vices. That's what makes this whole crazy parenting thing such a wonderful opportunity. Because we are here to help them become the best possible versions of themselves. One of the ways we do that is to help them become like us in all the good ways. But one of the other ways is to prevent them from becoming too much like us in all the bad ways.
It can be an incredibly difficult balancing act if we aren't honest or self-possessed, if we let our egos get in the way. We can't let that happen. This is our chance, our time! To help them. To bolster them. To help them overcome flaws that maybe we never quite got over ourselves. To seize this second chance-to give what we didn't get.
More than that, it's a chance to understand.
January 4
Show Them How to Keep Their Cool
In 1952, Margaret Thatcher's father was driven out of office when a rival political party won a majority in the election. He was upset. He was hurt. And he could have allowed those emotions to drive how he reacted. But he didn't.
Instead, Thatcher's father made a statement of incredible restraint and dignity: "It is now almost nine years since I took up these robes in honor, and now I trust in honor they are laid down." He added later, "Although I have toppled over I have fallen on my feet. My own feeling is that I was content to be in and I am content to be out."
We could say that what he was doing was showing his daughter how to lose with grace. But it was much more than that. He was showing her that external circumstances don't make the man or woman, only how we respond to them. He was showing her how to bear adversity and how to never surrender your poise or self-control. These would all be lessons that Thatcher would use throughout her tumultuous life as a public servant, a prime minister, and a mother.
Your kids will need them too. So show them. Show by example, not just with words. Show them, when you've been screwed over and it really hurts, that still your personal code of conduct matters more. Because it does. Because it will.
January 5
Which Will It Be?
In his Broadway show, Bruce Springsteen explained the cho...
