Recording the track was an emotional experience for McGraw. He recalled to Billboard magazine: "We had just dropped Gracie off at college, and I went into the studio and I kept blubbering. I couldn't get through the song - I'd fall apart. I had to leave to go to a volleyball game, and after about five miles I turned around and cried all the way back to the studio, because I wanted to get it out of my system. It's such a great message."

Lori McKenna wrote the song at her home when her kids were at school. She set out to write down what she and her husband would want the children to know, fully aware that kids are bombarded with advice and most of it goes right through them. "Honestly, it's a very simple song," she told The Boot. "It's really just this list of things that I wanted to make sure we told them, in this rhyme form. I was lucky that the chorus made as much sense as it did. I did write it in that one sitting; it took me a few hours, but it was a lucky day."

McKenna sang the demo into her phone, and sent it to McGraw, but she didn't hear anything back for a while. After a couple of months he told her he was cutting the song.

Lori McKenna won her second consecutive Song of the Year trophy at the 2016 CMA Awards for this song. The tunesmith won Song of the Year in 2015 with Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose for "Girl Crush."

This won for Favorite Country Song at the 2016 American Music Awards.