With all the sneaking out and the lying and the moodiness and the aimlessness and the challenging and the whining and the ignoring, it might not feel like you have a perfect teenager, but you do.

You most assuredly do. Because this is all perfectly normal teenage behavior.

We talked about Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey recently (a must-read) and how she noted as she worked through Homer, how timeless his descriptions of the mood of teenage Telemachus was. He was moody and emotional, insecure and insolent. He was just like your teenager…and just like all teenagers. He was doing his job. He was doing the things teenagers do.

And so is yours.

Your job is to understand this. And be patient with them. Your job is to model what mature emotional regulation looks like. Your job is to guide them. Your job is not to make them feel like they’re an alien or that there is something wrong with them (because there isn’t!). Your job is not to take any of this personally (because it isn’t).

Your job is to wait this out. Your job is to help them become an adult…which means first being a perfect (and overwhelmingly difficult) teenager.

It’s hard to find a solid group of fathers making space to talk about parenting challenges. Who are comfortable speaking openly, sharing their struggles, and offering advice to others walking the same path.

Soon after my first son was born, I started looking for a support group like that—one where I could be honest and learn from others’ experiences.

I couldn’t find it, so I built it.

I wanted to create a community where dads like me wouldn’t feel judged for trying (and often first failing) at the challenges that being a parent inevitably throws at us. Where we could have the support of other dads along every step of this fatherhood journey, in an effort to get better at the most important job we’ll ever have.

That’s what we’re doing with Daily Dad Society. If this sounds like something you’d benefit from, learn more and join us at dailydad.com/society.