I was so proud

When I got home from work yesterday my 8 year old son came running up to and said he had something he wanted to show me. We go in the kitchen and he holds up this book:

open the page talking about Le Mans cars, "Look dad a Porsche 911 Turbo, isn't that cool.".

I could not believe that the school Library had that book. We spent about 30 minutes going over the different cars in the book and then he says " I wonder if they have a newer one with the Flying Lizards and such in it?"

It was a good day.

My 7 year old asked me when we were going to start "making cars".

God Bless him.

thats a kick ass story! The mag ought to do a fathers and son stories collection or an issue where they feature cars built with the family (Andys family doesnt count, they typically have an issue with that each year, its called the Challenge issue ).

This is why I want kids.

We have that exact book :-)

In reply to EricM:

Very cool. I ordered it form Amazon for his birthday.

School libraries have some surprising books. I checked one out when I was a kid that was from the 60's on toy car building. The converted a tonka to R/C with this big 1960's controler and how to make Sir Campbell's bluebird from laminated sheets of wood. We used those directions to make the coolest pinewood derby car ever.

My high school library had a book on making moonshine.

Derick Freese wrote: This is why I want kids.

They are also an excellent source of slave labor for yard clean-up, dishwashing and fetching beer from the garage when you find yourself up on a roof or otherwise too lazy to fetch it yourself.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Derick Freese wrote: This is why I want kids.

They are also an excellent source of slave labor for yard clean-up, dishwashing and fetching beer from the garage when you find yourself up on a roof or otherwise too lazy to fetch it yourself.

Never forget garage-door-opener: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C-Bxifv2Pk

I remember being my father's remote control, long before those things actually came with TV's.

My son is two, and seems to very interested in mechanical things and tools. I really want to build a custom pedal car for him. Something like this would be cool.

sachilles wrote: I remember being my father's remote control, long before those things actually came with TV's. My son is two, and seems to very interested in mechanical things and tools. I really want to build a custom pedal car for him. Something like this would be cool.

My 10 yr old has one of these... it has pedals ;) It makes for an awesome weekend. The little kids start racing smaller ones at 5.

My 3-year-old nephew hopped into my car the other day, put my helmet on and started making engine noises. I was a proud uncle. Then I discovered he had spit all over the inside of my helmet.

Still proud. Grossed out and proud.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Derick Freese wrote: This is why I want kids.

They are also an excellent source of slave labor for yard clean-up, dishwashing and fetching beer from the garage when you find yourself up on a roof or otherwise too lazy to fetch it yourself.

And they've got nice small hands for a while. So get to them while they're young and get them to help with bolts in those tough to reach spots.

My 15 year old nephew keeps asking when I'll move out to AZ and "help" him build a car....

And when kids are young, they are fascinated by doing the most mundane task: nephew mentioned above was ALWAYS polishing his father's wheels.

keethrax wrote: And they've got nice small hands for a while. So get to them while they're young and get them to help with bolts in those tough to reach spots.

They are all but useless for detail work. I have a 2" round burn on my right arm from an attempt to get an 8yr old to hold a drop light while I fished a wire down the wall.