Try Not to Say 'Can't'

When my son was only a few years old, he was watching me do some work down in my basement workshop.

"Dad," he said. "I want you to make me one of those", he pointed vaguely.

"What?", I asked.

"That," he added helpfully.

"What?"

"THAT."

I finally realized he was pointing to my table saw. Just before the words, "I can't..." came out of my mouth, I stopped myself. Well, obviously I wasn't going to build my son his own full scale table saw, but maybe there was something in between "can't" and "hopelessly irresponsible parenting."

So I built my son a mini table saw from scrap parts. it had a little plastic blade and a hobby DC motor from some old toy. It had a moveable fence and a set of wood pieces held together by magnets that could be "cut" by the saw.

He used that thing for years. It's still around, one of many odd little toys I've built for my children. I try never to start with "can't" with my kids.

Views: 105

Comment

You need to be a member of GeekDad to add comments!

Join GeekDad

Comment by Andrew Terranova on March 25, 2012 at 11:06pm

@Daniel: I'll have to try to dig the box up and take some pics for a project walk through. I've got a couple of other favorites I can try to document too.

Comment by Daniel Donahoo on March 25, 2012 at 10:19pm

Hey Andrew - It was obviously a while ago, but I'd love to see this written up as a project in the Project Section of this GeekDad community - sounds great. Do you have any photos?

Comment by Oliver Gingrich on March 22, 2012 at 8:28am

That's a great story Andrew.  I totally agree that there's something rewarding when your kids ask you for something and you show them that it can be done.  The magnets were especially clever.  Good work.

© 2013   Created by GeekDad.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service