Those are called "teachable moments" and they never come when you're prepared for them. They just happen, and when handled properly like you did, everybody learns something that lasts forever. One of God's blessings to us as parents.
Didn't happe to me, but a friend I used to hang out with. In the Phoenix area, there is a pinstriper named Butch T (most know him as Butchers). We were sitting at a local hangout many moons ago and he used to watch my 1-2 year old while the wife and I would sneek away to look at cars. It let him play grampa, it gave us 30 minutes kid free. As we sat down and were talking, he told me when he was younger and his daughter was 4 or so, he had JUST finished painting a car and came inside to clean up and relax. 30 minutes or so later, his daughter came walking in with paint all over herself. She looks up at him and said "I can paint cars too daddy". He ran out to the garage fearing what he was about to see. Opens the door, his freshly painted car was fine......... till he walked around to the other side, and from the door handle down was his new "twice" freshly painted car, painted with a brush.
Heck....Butch'r intimidated the hell out of me when I was 20....much less 4! He's a softee though. It's all about perspective. Our hot rods and coveted junk DO have value to us, but really, it's liberating when you realize the little ones change the importance curve entirely.
We had a booth for our machine shop at the spring Rhinebeck show and my 2 year son was in our custom Vega pickup pulling knobs & pushing buttons like there was no tomorrow. I walked over to see how he was doing and he promptly says "I have nothing behind my back". When I asked to see what he indeed had he handed me the interior mirror which he pulled off the windshield. I still chuckle thinking about this...and he turns 25 tomorrow, 5/15!!!
its been a few years, but my oldest son was learning how to throw a baseball. After some practice, he wound up and threw it straight to his side....into my 70 chevelle ss. looks like a hammer hit it. 12 years later I still have the car and the dent. I point it out to him and we both laugh, he has learned to blame me " who would trust a little kid to through a ball that close to a classic car?" haha . It kind of felt like that Saturn commercial..
When my daughter Shelby was about two and a half years old we were living on the north side of Austin in a house that had a pretty steep driveway leading to the garage. I had been cleaning the garage all day and my pickup was in the driveway with the door open, and the e-brake set. She had come out of the house to help daddy and crawled up into the cab. I saw her just about the time I heard a disconcerting "thud" of the e-brake handle (nope, not in gear) and the truck went from zero to sixty in about 2.0 seconds, running into, and landing on top of my restored '63 Panhead and junker '42 WLA 45. thank God she didn't get hurt, it could have been much, much worse. 'Ol dumbass Dad learned a lesson that day, the bikes required "driving off" of them, and sustained damage, but nothing I couldn't repair, but it scared the hell out of all of us thinking what might have happened to her. Gotta' watch 'em every second of every day. a helluva lot easier said than done!
I say put it back on the car like it is. You can always replace it, but you can't replace the the smile you'll get from the reminder of your time spent together in the garage every time you look into that mirror. Heck, if anything gets broken in my garage, it's always my fault, I don't have anyone to share those kind of memories with. Consider yourself very blessed your best friend was there to help you build that memory.
One of the biggest reasons I am looking for my first project is so my three boys 6, 3.5, and 2 can work on it with me. I hope I remember what you all have said the first time something gets broken or scratched.
My twins just turned 4 so I'm in the same boat as you fellas. These things happen all the time but last week I was doing some bodywork on my el camino. I walked away to grab a tool from the other shop and heard BAM BAM BANG BAM BANG - when I got back to the car one of my little guys was sliding his hand over the front of the car "I think it's pretty good now Daddy" he set down the hammer he had been beating the car with and went on to something else. I just have to laugh. Shit happens, but I love to have the boys in the shop with me. Every night when I get home from work they are excited and begging to go to the shop. Now we're working on a go kart..
Man, I'd give anything in the world to have a little helper to tear shit up in the garage. Some of my fondest memories are times in the shop and at the track with my dad, little bro and grandpa. You're living the dream brother.
I was replacing the door weather stripping on my 56 Chevy two door with my grandson around age seven, and was letting him push the weather stripping plastic pegs in the holes on the door. I never really thought much about it until my wife told me our grandson told her how much he loves helping Grandpa work on his old cars. He's now ten and I always try and find way's he can help. Hopefully he ill have pleasant memories of helping Grandpa.
I remember back when I was a kid my father use to take me to my uncles garage where they were always working on something. My uncle was building a nasty 327 and had all his gaskets and parts laid out on a table. My father and uncle were on the otherside of the shop talking and I was doing what bored kids do. I eventually found my way over to the table where all the parts were. To this day I can still remember picking up one of his cork gaskets and bending it into all these cool shapes. Then all of a sudden it must have bent a bit too far, and snapped apart. oops. Set it down....walk away... dad found out the next day...lets just say he wasn't happy.
I had my first and only child in my late '40s. Its almost like skipping fatherhood, and going straight to Grandpahood. She is a never ending source of joy and wonder.
Years ago, a buddy of mine's toddler (barely) wandered out of the garage and plopped down on the floor. His diaper clanked which got everyone's attention. The kid had been picking up sockets, bolts and nuts as his dad was removing them from the car and stashing them in his diaper. He was destined to be a gearhead. My stepson came into my life at a much older age, so I envy you guys that got to start them young.
Not only are you teaching some good lesson on repairing and hot rodding your teaching life. How to get thru life is something not being taught to well these days. A salute to you guys for not blowing up at the young ones. As OP said its just stuff.
I just posted this on another thread but one of the big reasons I wanted my '35 (or a car with an old paint job) was for the fact that I knew I wanted my kids to be able to crawl in and out of it without me stressing out every time they did so. I never wanted to say "no Memphis you can't go in the car and play because daddy doesn't have time". Instead I wanted their first experiences with old cars to be fun and playful because that's what it is to me. It's really worked out well so far even having his bike fall on the car is no big deal. Now I do want my cars to eventually be slicked up and nice but for right now I've got little time to worry about these things because I want to enjoy this brief period in their lives. So I'm leaving this thing a little rough around the edges so he can play in it as he pleases....
Do you have any idea the damage a 3" wood screw can do to Harley leather clad saddle bags ? I do, and so does my son...it's just one of life's little lessons, He's 8 now, going on 9 this summer, and getting to be a lot more helpful.
This story brought a tear to my eye, my son is 9 months old and I can't wait to have him in the garage, but it reminded me a lot of of my dad and me, in his garage. I think I learned something for the future too.
Those moments when my anger snapped are the biggest regrets of my life. Love those little ones and help them to grow up to remember your love and kindness.
Make sure you keep track of your tools too. I have twin 4.5 yr old boys and they love "helping" me in the garage. They love to grab a small wrench that fits their hands and follow me around the car pretending to tighten things. When one small wrench went missing, I looked around for it and found it neatly tucked into one of my water pumps. Found it early so there were no problems. Now we return all wrenches before leaving the garage. Also, I make sure I unplug every tool, keep anything sharp up high out of reach and make sure the keys are always out of the car.
My little guy is pretty good about keeping things where they belong and not doing much more damage than wearing out some door latches and putting little foot prints on some seats.... they are a true blessing. The other day he was talking to a lady at preschool and said that his dad does the best burnouts! She looked at me.... I smiled. It was fun. It reminds me that when all the cars are gone and the racing is over... your kids are still your kids and there they are. Nice.........
Love these stories.....when my kids where young I let them use whatever they found interesting in the garage. Sometimes showing them the proper way and sometimes letting them experiment. It was something my own father did for me. I know for years I felt the same frustration my dad probably did......never an aerosol can with anything in it, never a roll of tape, #2 screwdrivers always missing ( for years everytime I went to the store I'd pick up and extra #2 flat blade, now they are everywhere). I never let them see my frustration and always shared my passions with them while working in the garage. These days my own time in the garage is way too short. My payback for those days with my sons amounts to great pride. My 29 year old son has built several off topic trucks that have been featured in several of the popular magazines.....he's far exceeded my talents. Fun to see what he's up to these days and he has a 4 year old of his own....allows you to smile a little when you hear the stories of his son and thier adventures in the garage. Clicked this of my grandson one day at his shop.......put a tear in my eye thinking of the old days and a smile thinking about what the future holds.
Another one with my oldest son... He painted my coupe when he was about 7. It was spray paint. He now is 16 and says I can't touch the paint on it because it has history.. How many dads give their kid another can of spray paint...hey you missed a spot. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
When I was young my Dad would go over to my Godfathers shop...that is where the "magic" happened...I can remember hoping and hoping every Saturday that he would invite me. I would say 75% of the time I got to tag along...the best memories of my life. Cheeseburger lunch, posters of women in bikinis, me sanding some hard to reach corner of the car where only my fingers could fit... I will never forget thoese memories.