What if the goal of parenting isn't to make your kid grow up, but to help them stay a kid longer? Brandon Fong joins The Dad Manual to talk about raising his daughter Kaya with childlike curiosity, emotional honesty, and zero interest in bubble-wrapping her from the world. Tony and Brandon dig into masculine and feminine energy in parenting, why toddlers process feelings in about 90 seconds if you let them, the story behind a very memorable ER visit, and how AI might make being simply human the most valuable skill of all. It's a warm, funny, unexpectedly deep conversation about staying playful while raising a person.

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00:00 The slide, the ER, dad wisdom
00:39 Meet Brandon Fong
01:24 Reclaiming childhood as an adult
02:22 What sparked childlike curiosity
04:37 Naming things kills their magic
07:00 Learning Kaya's perspective
09:03 The "other mother" past life talk
11:01 What Kaya is like as a kid
12:56 Always wanting to be a dad
14:04 Masculine and feminine parenting energy
17:06 Dad's playful Coke-bag toys
20:36 How intentional Leah and Brandon were
23:00 The most surprising part of fatherhood
26:04 Letting kids get hurt to grow
33:52 Working through reactivity as a dad
36:36 The 90 second feeling rule
41:06 Raising a kid in the AI era
49:03 Kaya's core essence described
51:14 Advice for a brand new dad