Thread: Getting my kids involved

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I recently received a post in which several people were concerned with putting my kids behind the wheel of the car I'm currently building. First of all I would like to thank them for there concern. Beleive me , your warning does not fall on deaf ears. My kids safety is my greatest concern. But it did get me to thinking, am I going too far having them involved in the build? I have 7 kids, from 10 to 3 months. Two boys and the rest are girls. Not all the girls are real excited about the project as you can imagine, but a few are and I want them to be involved.
My two sons are 5 years old and 3 months old. My 5 year old loves to be in the garage with me getting dirty and learning all the lastest cuss words when Dad bangs his finger on stuff- HE HE HE.
Do you think it's a bad idea to have my younger children in the garage this close to the work? I just looking for input and opinions here, I will probally continue doing this because I love spending time with my kids. I take great pains to insure that there isn't anything around the shop they can hurt themselves with and they are constantly under close supervision.
My father passed away before we had a chance for this type of stuff, so I want to make sure my kids don't miss out as well..
Looking forward to your input. And thanks again for the concern, it makes me glad to know I found a site with real peole who aren't just worried about hp and tires..LOL.

Heck If I hadn't hung around my dad, I wouldn't have learned much or it would have taken me longer to learn. I wouldn't want anyone younger than maybe 5 or 6 because they wouldn't understand anything and probably be in the way, but older than that I see no problem.

Yeah,, I think 5 is the perfect age. My boy is really sharp and he has an amazing memory. Plus he's just a blast to have around. He has the drive, as soon as he gets up he wants to go hang out in the garage.

I'm in the camp of "the more family time the better". When I lived in Iowa, I had a repair shop. My son was just starting to walk back then, but he was always out there in his bib overalls gettin' dirty. He is 23 now, but still gets razzed about the time he thought a pan of waste oil was a chair He will never live that one down. Good thing the oil was cold. that set of clothes got pitched.
As far as gettin' the kids invloved.... it was my son buyin' his Camaro...that got me re-invloved in cars. So, it sometimes works both ways.

Good lookin' kids by the way. How biig are they...From here it looks like 'bout 3/8'' and the other one 'bout a 9/16''. Just kiddin'

Eboy I can bet what your youngster is going to be when he gets older. Maybe a gearhead?????????????/

All I know is that I work 6 (sometimes 7) days a week and any time with the little ones is quaility time.

I'm not as talented as the people in here, but I'm learning as I go along, and hopefully they pick a few tricks from ol Dad

Personally, if the kids show a desire to be there I see nothing wrong with it. As Streets said stress safety and the right way to do things, and keep the number of kids to point that you can actually keep an eye on them.

At the age of your kids the one thing I think I would do is make sure the garage is locked when your not there. If they think of the shop as a fun place to be, chances are they will be there when your not around. Unsupervised any shop can be a dangerous place.

Don't sweat it Eboy, your a great dad and they will gain more from being with you than anything. I can't remember not being with my dad when he was wrenching, I was in diapers when he got me started. My kids where the same way untill they found sports but to this day all three still treasure the times with dad out in the garage. Keep it up and you will not regret it.

Kids and garages. What a touchy subject. Hmm, where do i stand? Can he walk? Can he talk coherantly? if you can answer these both yes-let the kid learn! I think that anyone who wants to be in the garage to learn has a right.

Buy him some safety glasses and some gloves and let him stay in the garage and learn. My youngest boy (14) out of 6 (3 girls -3 boys) spent most of his life in my garage & the pits of dozens of midwest dirt tracks. he's raced 1/4 midgets since he was 7 ( cept I can't fold him in half and put him in one anymore) ( on to 600 mini sprints later this year) He can run any tool in my garage and has free run of it with the exception of the welder & torches unless I'm there.

He already has all of that stuff. We dug out some old "extras", tools and stuff and put together his own little tool box. He wears his little gloves and goggles all the time.

Well ok I know I am only a teenager or like you geezer's like to call us "younge punks" but I know that you should have the kid work with you since I never got raised like that and I am still a kid so now I can tell you what your kid would tell you if you didn't let them work with you. I wish my dad did that with me but he worked a lot and couldn't work on any car's so I never really grew up doing that and wish I did so I say go for it. Don't force the kid to do it if he doesn't wan't or he'll hate it. I sometimes worked with some people fixing up some car's and trucks here and there. I used to take my go cart and dirt bike's out and take the engines completely apart and put them back together myself and get yelled at in between because of course the rent's (or parent's as you guy's call them) would think that I would mess it up. I have basically learned everything now from show's and thing's of that sort and on the net reading all about this stuff. I normally hate reading but if it deal's with hot rods, harleys, dirt bikes, choppers, street bikes, etc then I am there to read it. I would probably have gotten started earlier on learning about car's if I did grow up around the car's and all. I don't know why I am into hot rod's and all because I really didn't grow up around them or nothing but I have always liked them..... Can't explain why but did and I saw pictures of my dad's old car's and Nova's and stuff like that and liked them since. Now I am on my own... I learn everything on my own, I don't have friends here that are into rodding or dirt bike's or nothing like that so it kind of in a way suck's for me but also doesn't because I do what I like to do and that's working on engines, etc. Well sorry I got off subject a bit there but that is probably what your son would say if he doesn't stick with the shop work with you so now you get an idea and I hope that helped you some. Your a lucky bastard to have kid's working in a shop with you and all and I know your probably thinking that I am a teen and dont' know a damn thing about kid's and all but sorry to say, you would be wrong if you thought that... I am not like other teen's you might know or think of.