Hey folks with kids, I'm curious to hear about your experiences with keeping a kid engaged working on your car together. My son is 3.5 and loves "working" on the car. This basically consists of him watching me or spinning the front wheel when it's up on jack stands, or sitting in the driver's seat pretending to drive while I'm wrenching away. He has a 30-60 minute attention span for this type of thing before he's running outside or pulling things off the shelf in the garage.
I'm asking in particular because I want to build a Catfish "with" him, such that he'll have a positive memorable experience from it, and preferably be actually involved in some part of the build. I'd love to hear any stories of similar father-son/daughter projects that went well or poorly to help me plan the ideal timing.
Thanks!

 

Sounds like a great idea! My girl is 2 and right now she does the same thing. ill let her play in the car and she pretends to drive and flip the hazard/headlights a lot. then starts wandering the garage. When i was little though just being involved and helping was what kept me interested.

 

I started with my son when he was about two as well. We recently did a walk around Laguna Seca, which was pretty cool. Now he runs around the house yelling "I'm a Miata race car!"

 

when they get tired of being still try giving them something to take apart. doesn't have to be car related. My grandfather would take me to the junkyards and we'd find household appliances to tear apart. I'd take an old VCR, pull the cover off and then we'd load a tape and see what happens once the tape goes in. Sometimes I'd just get a kick out of tearing **** apart. It created some fond memories of me and my grandfather tinkering.

So when their attention span runs out you can still keep them engaged with an irrelevant thing. To them is still working with dad.

 

The main thing is that you all are together - that's what kids want, to know that dad wants them around (even if they get into ****). Yes, their attention span won't get them through most "car-working days", but the point is for them to be comfortable around you, and around mechanical stuff. When they hit 9 or 10, then they can start to become useful.

PS - I'm 63 and my son is 35. He still remembers me pushing him around the garage on a creeper, with him holding a spare steering wheel and his mom being horrified when we simulated a crash. Those were the good old days!

 

This is relvant to my interests as a parent of a 7 week old daughter. My main goal is to teach her enough to know when a mechanic is trying pull one over on her. After that, to call out boys stupidly bragging about their cars.

 

What about so she can build something to stupidly brag to the boys about?

 

My goal isn't to impress what I enjoy doing onto her, but to show here she can enjoy if she wants. Ultimately I want her to do whatever makes here happy as long as she isn't hurting herself or others.

 

I want that for my son too, plus the selfish joy of him being into what I love to do. Is that too much to ask?

 

If she takes cars up for a hobby, I'll be excited for sure.