The Daily Dad

You’re Made Not Born

Dec 21, 2023

03:49

Snipd AI

This podcast delves into the transformative power of a child's love and the choice to become a parent. It emphasizes the importance of personal growth and introduces a sponsor, BetterHelp, an online therapy platform.

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Quick takeaways

Being a great parent is a choice to accept the transformative process of parenting.

Therapy and stoicism can complement each other in overcoming parenting challenges.

Deep dives

Being a Parent is a Choice

Being a great parent is not something you are born with, but rather a choice that people make to build their lives around. It requires working on oneself and being willing to change. It is the decision to accept the process of parenting, opening oneself up and allowing it to transform both the parent and the child.

Choosing to be a Parent and the Transformative Power of Love

4min

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 loves you, then you become Real."

So yes, it’s a choice, but an unusual type of choice. It’s the decision, as we’ve talked about, to accept this process. To open yourself up to it. To let it change you.

We choose to have kids, and they choose to give us their love, to really love us. We play with them, we connect with them, we open ourselves to them and they to us. And then this process changes, transforms both of us in the most wonderful and magical of ways.

For those ready to accept the process, to open yourself up to it, we created the 2024 New Year New You Challenge. It’s a set of 21 actionable challenges—presented one per day—built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy. Our goal is to help you and your family make 2024 your best year yet.

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