We’ve all tried. We’ve all tried to get someone who doesn’t have kids to understand. A friend, a coworker, a neighbor, a sibling. We tell them about the funny things kids say and do. We show them pictures and videos. We say things like, “I thought I’d never have kids but…” and “Trust me: you don’t know what you’re missing.”
But it’s not that they don’t know—it’s that they can’t know what they’re missing. Jerry Seinfeld tells a story of a time he and fellow comedian Gary Shandling were at Warren Beatty’s house not long after Beatty became a father:
Gary and I of course had no idea what he was doing or why. And we were kind of questioning him about it. What’s it like? What are you doing? I remember him taking me into a room in his mansion and it was filled with toys. He goes, “This used to be my office.” And then there was just this room filled with little-kid toys. And I didn’t understand it. And he said, “One of the nice things God does is that he doesn’t let people who don’t have kids know what they’re missing.” Then you have them, and a quadrant, a network in your brain opens up that you didn’t know was in there.
If you’re a parent, you know you don’t need a scientific study or some neuroscientist to confirm what you know from experience. There’s a part of you that didn’t exist until you had kids. Maybe it’s a new network in the brain. Maybe it’s something else.
Whatever it is, it’s a fundamental shift in your being that is impossible to convey to those who haven’t experienced it. We become part of this eternal and timeless tradition of every parent that ever was, as we say in the introduction of the Daily Dad book (new leatherbound edition now available!). It’s this beautiful little secret that humbles, inspires, and binds all of us parents together. We’ll keep trying to let the non-parents in on it, and we’ll do it with the knowing smile—because they can’t know what we know.
P.S. Parenting is one of those beautiful experiences that links us, in an unbroken chain, back thousands of years. And despite the flaws of generations past, the parents of yesteryear have plenty of advice that applies to us as parents today and you can read their tips and stories in the Daily Dad book.
Our premium leatherbound edition preserves this parenting wisdom to stand the test of time, so that one day you can pass it along to your children and then they can pass it on to theirs and so on with future generations.
By displaying this book in your home—it makes a beautiful addition to any bookshelf—you’re showing visitors your commitment to raising good, compassionate kids and creating a conversation starter to discuss the wonderful experience of being a parent.
Grab your leatherbound edition at dailydad.com/leather today!
