Ohmystinkinheck

Kenny and Meredith are outside the door at every chance. Two days ago I heard shrill screaming and ran out the front door to see them both sitting on the back of Kenny’s large metal dump truck and going down the hill as fast as it would take the two of them. I wish my battery wasn’t charging at the time - it would have been a good shot to share. Of course, my heart was trying to pound its way out of my chest (because I thought someone was hurt) and I’m not sure I would have thought to grab my camera.

Once I realized my children were both still intact and only screaming as if plunging to their deaths for fun, I just sat and watched them a while, as I often do, and remembered how fun it was to PLAY as a child.

Last week Meredith and Kenny decided to open up a shop. The shop, according to Kenny, was “For making money to earn!” And no, he didn’t appreciate me explaining the word ‘earn’, nor correcting his sentence.

I DID grab my camera that time, planting myself down the driveway in time to catch Meredith using the hacksaw on my truck’s running board. I reminded myself that as soon as Kenny graduated to ‘real’ tools, the both of them would definitely require tighter supervision.

Before ANY power tools come into play, Jeff needs to do some instruction on proper tool usage. For instance, it is unwise to twist a screw through wood into your hand.

It’s just not.

Also, safety goggles are to be worn at all times. AND? If your safety goggles have no lenses they don’t offer much safety. Again, just one of those things to know before doing things like operating a nail gun or something.

We’re all about getting to know your tools - look it over, talk to it, caress it, say “My hammer is my friend. My hammer is my friend.”

But do NOT hammer an item while holding it in the air. Hardly effective - you’re just asking to lose your thumbnail if you do that.

Don’t you love these orange aprons? My kids have a love/hate relationship with Home Depot. They love that they can go there and get kid-size aprons, and cool things like wood kits for making cars, birdhouses, napkin holders, and various other things, BUT…they HATE it when Jeff and I go there to walk around and dream up projects or price things because, as any kid could tell you, that’s booooooooooooooooring!

Meredith, being somewhat bossy and older, has a tendency to employ Kenny as her helper; he gets to hand off tools. When he forgets and stops paying attention, she gets as frustrated as any mechanic and the whole shop knows about it.

But on this particular day they worked well together and once completed, informed me they were ready to go to the store and spend their earnings.

“Oh really, how much did you charge for sawing the running board off that truck?” I asked.

Meredith rolls her eyes at me, Kenny gives me a ‘huh?’ look, and Mer says, “Fifty. We have to charge 50 dollars to fix the truck.”

And then she stood there looking at me and I suddenly realized…I own that truck.

“Will ice cream do?” I asked.

There was a collective “Yes” and the kids piled into the ‘fixed’ truck, to go and collect their wages in ice cream.

16 Responses to “What is she doing with that hacksaw?”

1. Kris

   LOVE it! And having watched my eldest take a real-life hacksaw to his car’s exhaust pipes…and then graduate to a very LOUD reciprocating saw to whack the thing in half so he could rip it off and replace it with much LOUDER pipes, I’m reminded how important those early tool/safety briefings were! Enjoy!

2. erin

   My kids HATE Home Depot too! Whenever we pull in the parking lot they all start wailing! But my boys have those same tools, and the hours of fun they’ve had “helping” dad fix stuff!

3. MissCaron

   I just posted an email instead of a comment. WOW. It has really been a long day. Anyway, I heart home depot. Loved the pics of the kids hard at work ;-)

4. bethany actually

   Annalie LOVES going to Home Depot with Troy. She does not get that from me. I get bored within about two minutes of walking through the door.

5. Brenda

   Too cute! I am of the opinion that kids should get familiar with tools at a young age, so they can build their parents a house by the time they hit adulthood. :) I love the aprons!

   (I too almost posted an e-mail instead of a comment. Did you intend to have that form at the end of your post?)

   http://www.engberts-kaya.com

6. mamalang

   So cute!

7. Mr. OMSH

   Yep, these pictures are evidence of two things: foolish practices with hand tools (hatchets included) run on my side of the family in males; and two, you gotta run the kids through boring times at hardware stores–so they can appreciate them later.

   **NOTE: to emphasize the memories, we make our kids walk up hill both ways in the snow to Home Depot. We figure they need their share of hard times to lie about to their children and grandchildren.

8. darci

   They are adorable :)

9. OMSH

   I am soooo sorry for the contact form that I accidentally inserted at the end of the post. It is a plugin that I use and all I have to do is click it to place a form in any post (I use it for my contact PAGE, not posts.). Anyway, it is gone, but sorry for the confusion!

10. Mrs. Wilson

    I SO love how your photos tell the story. And, I LOVE Home Depot!

11. KYouell

    I was going to try to come up with a funny comment, but there’s no way I could top Mr. OMSH so I’m just gonna move along. Just needed to subscribe in case more funny happens.

12. Di

    Love the story and love Home Depot. Photos can tell such great stories. I will have to say that Lowes has a much better selection of area rugs though if any of you gals is ever shopping for one.

    http://theblueridgegal.blogspot.com/

13. (Tabitha) From Single to Married

    What a great story!! I love Home Depot too - just the smell when you walk through the door is enough to make me swoon. Don’t worry, they’ll feel that way soon enough.
    Tabitha @ http://www.fromsingletomarried.com

14. Mom2Six

    My husband loves Home Depot, too. He just recently figured out he can save himself (and the kids) that boring walk pricing everything–They’ll give prices over the phone. Then it’s just a quick trip to pick up what he needs–if he doesn’t get too distracted browsing!

    I love watching kids play and imitate. It’s great!

15. Josh

    Ice cream for all? Sounds like a good deal to me.

16. Jeri

    When my son was 3, he showed a profound interest in tools. I mean, it was abnormal how he wanted to use tools. I was driving around one day and saw a big scrap pile of wood at a construction site. I pulled over, grabbed lots of pieces of 2×4’s. Some had mitered cuts, some had channels routed in them, others were square or rectangle odds and ends (and some ended up in our fireplace). When I presented this box full of wood scraps to my son, it was like Christmas. I should’ve saved them, wrapped them, and stuck them under the tree!

    Anyway, I gave him a quickie lesson, gave him his Dad’s hammer and some nails, and let him have at it. He NEVER pounded a nail into something he shouldn’t have. He never hurt himself, either! He built some amazing things, one that was crane-like, using a piece with a mitered end and a channel cut the length of the wood. He cut some rope, put it in the channel, and had me tie a washer at the end. He devised a little pully system. I was amazed he thought that up.

    Another thing we did was to pick up old appliances like VCR’s, hair dryers - junk on the free pile at garage sales. We’d cut the cord off, then let him take it apart. He LOVED doing that, seeing the inside of motors and things that are usually covered up.

    I always thought he’d want to be an engineer, and I was right!

    He had such fun with all those tools (I never did hand him a saw!) Let them explore the world of tools! It’s really good for their hand-eye coordination and dexterity.