Ryan DeissCo-Founder & CEO, The Scalable Company

Kids don’t need your ego. They need proof that you’re actually present.

2 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Ryan Deiss. This content was uploaded by Ryan Deiss. This is a YouTube video titled "Kids don’t need your ego. They need proof that you’re actually present." The excerpt is a single-speaker segment (labeled SPEAKER A) from December 28, 2025, in which the speaker reflects on parental behavior—buying expensive toys (e.g., a slot car racetrack) to satisfy the parent's own ego rather than the child's needs—and argues that children need a parent's presence more than material gifts. Metadata: contenttype=YOUTUBE, createdtime=2025-12-28T16:04:02+00:00, lasteditedtime=2026-02-02T12:53:15.713477+00:00.

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I think as parents, we will invest trips, toys, and things like that for our kids to buy them the things that we couldn't have. I remember there was this amazing slot car racetrack. I remember thinking, like, I want one of these. I remember asking my parents about it. They're like, we can't do it. It's too expensive. And so as soon as my now oldest was like five or six, I'm like, this kid's getting a slot car, and so I go out and I buy the best one they have. And this thing didn't even fit in the room. It was amazing. He used it for, like, two seconds, and it's like, yeah, I'm done. I didn't buy that for him. I bought that for me. I bought that for my own ego. I think par do that all the time.