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My Young MG Apprentice

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my 16 year old daughter helps me in the garage. We're pulling an engine next weekend and she knows enough to run the other way whenever I mention bleeding the clutch slave cylinder
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That's awsome Bret!
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Many B owners would miss a tender moment like that because they're afraid that the part might not get painted just like they would do it themselves. Congrats to you for letting her help and knowing that in the end, the B is more precious for her assistance!
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[ 03-14-2004: Message edited by: nedley ]</p>
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by adam90009:
no mask for the fumes?<hr></blockquote>

Nope? We're out side. See the grass?

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For those of you following my ongoing issues with my 78B I thought I re-introduce my 4 yr old daughter Julia. Who serves double duty as my copilot and garage assistant. Well she’d been begging me for weeks now to do something more than fetchiing a rag or cold drink for her daddy. So I decided to start her out in the paint shop.

Here she is freshening up & beatifying the 78B’s air cleaner.
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We practiced on a cardboard box first to get her technique down and I think for a four year old she did pretty well. While I’m not trying to turn her into a tomboy or a grease monkey I hope to instill responsibility and curb any fears about getting her hands dirty or popping the hood (or bonnet) as she gets older.

Funny thing is that my wife left us alone and refrained from nagging me about how much longer I was going to be working on the car. But honestly I think I had more fun than my daughter did.

Job well done - Time for a cold one!
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[ 03-14-2004: Message edited by: Bret ]</p>
 
Bret -

Thanks for posting that wonderful picture. No doubt that air cleaner housing will make you smile for years to come.

Mickey
 
Bret....great pic! Now, go buy her some of those size 'extra small' nitrate plastic doctor's gloves so she won't get that rattle car paint on her little fingers...she'll think she's somebody wearing them around the garage!
 
Bret,
You can tell she is concentrating hard to do a good job. That is great.

My son is almost three. I can't wait until he'll be old enough to help. Right now, he just spills things, and bangs on my car with wrenches.
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But, he is learning!
 
That is great!
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my son is just about two but he'll be in the garage as soon as I let him (or more likely as soon as my wife lets him). Anything I'm fixing something around the house he'll grab the tool and try to copy me.
 
Bret, don't concern yourself about your daughter becoming a "grease monkey": she's way too beautiful for such a profession. Probably will be a model!
 
Julia is also starting to get familiar with many of the more common tools & their uses. Whether we’re working in the yard, garage or the house, I try lay out as many of the tools I think I might need for the project. Most of the time all I need to do is ask for a tool and she picks it out and hands it to me. Heck I even got her to keep a rag handy to wipe off the tools when I hand them back to her. Oh sure she still gets a little bit perplexed when I go from Standard vs. Metric. But then so do I sometimes. We had a long discussion one day about the difference between a 13mm and a ½” wrench. Julia’s comment still rings in my head to this day – “But Daddy, this one fits!?!”….
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The best one was when I found her trying to use my “pretty crescent wrench” to try’n tighten some of the nuts on her bike’s training wheels. The pretty crescent wrench turned out to be my $200 Mitutoyo Digital Calipers.
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Wabi-sabi is the quintessential Japanese aesthetic. It is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional...

Someday when you see the little paint drips and the places where she missed a spot, it will make that air cleaner worth more than the entire car... at least it will be to you.
 
When my boy was three he picked up a screwdriver I had left sitting around and proceeded to dismantle the door locks... in about 15 minutes he had taken them completely apart, laid all the pieces out neatly, and then he came to get me to show me what he had done.

We keep him out of the garage. No telling what he may take apart.
 
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