On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 22:35:11 -0700, "Bart D. Hull"
wrote:


Gentleman,

Just thought I'd run this past y'all. Recently got a
girlfriend with 4 kids (1 Boy 4, 3 Girls 8 - 14) They
are painfully ignorant on how to be safe in a shop or garage
environment. (Had to spend Thanksgiving in the ER due to one
of the girls tipping a motorcycle over on herself and
piercing her thigh with the foot peg. Three layers of
stitches later she's somewhat OK.)

In your experience how do you get these guys up to speed
without them killing themselves. If it wasn't for the lady
being a really special lady and REAL easy to look at I
wouldn't bother. (She rides dirt bikes, works on her own
van, likes to travel, not afraid of anything, assists with
projects and is pretty darn smart, just to name a few.)

It is even difficult to get them to understand something as
simple as taking their shoes off in the house and put them
on to visit me in the garage. (Yep, already had one cut a
foot on some metal scraps, due to bare feet.Still have to
yell at her to put some shoes on when she comes into the shop.)

How do you teach the "common sense" a great deal of us seem
to have in this group? I never had more than some burned
fingers (my fault) and got a small scald from a bad radiator
cap. (Wrong place, wrong time!) I sure didn't need any trips
to the ER before I learned.

I have a great deal of patience, but it bothers me that they
will get hurt. Only other thing is to lock them out of the
garage, but you just know they'll find their way in when I'm
not there and truly get hurt.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Bart

Kinda reminds me of "Jurassic Park" -- where the kids didn't mind and
the parents seemed to accept that. I can't watch that movie without
wanting to swat both the parents and the kids -- in that order.

Kids don't always mind, they're not robots. But they *must* learn
that there are times when instant total compliance is obligatory and
not negotiable. This is for safety situations. They should not be
allowed in the shop, ever, until they learn that.

"Her" kids may need some remedial training. She's going to have to do
most of that because "she's the mom", you're the newguy. She needs
to understand that it's for their safety, it isn't just you peeing on
trees and being bull of the woods.

My kids got that training as soon as they could understand it. They
got it from occasional fire drills, etc, which we tried to make as fun
as possible with good performance amply rewarded. One night we
really did have a fire. Well, our neighbor did. I woke up when I
could feel the heat thru the bedroom outside wall! The adjacent
garage was fully ablaze. I think our youngest was about 3 at the
time. When I woke them up and calmly told them we all must walk out
the front door right now, grab a blanket and a bear and get goin',
there was zero hesitation -- and it was cold out! Man, I was so
proud of them I coulda -- well, you know. When they got outside,
they could instantly see why we'd evacuated. My house wasn't
damaged because the FD got there a couple of minutes later and hosed
down my house, but that garage was burnt to the ground. It could
have been a very different story in the space of a couple of minutes.

Later got divorced, later yet hooked up with present wife. Her kids
were clueless about shop safety, but they'd been raised to respect Mom
so learning some new safety stuff from me was no problem for them.

My two sons, well one mine and one hers, both used my hand tools at
will and such power tools as they were checked out on. I never had
any problems at all with misplaced tools. Never. My son did leave
a screwdriver out in the yard once when he was fairly young, maybe
about 8. I bought him a really crummy screwdriver and told him he
could not use mine anymore, he'd have to use his own. He said, "but
Dad, this is a really crummy screwdriver!" "Yes, it is. Good tools
are reserved for those that care for them properly." I made that
stick for about two months. That's all it took.

Kids and dogs should never ever be yelled at. If they are, then they
soon assume that you're not serious unless you're yelling. They
respond best to consistent (relentless?) calm, gentle (and yes,
loving) firmness. Disobedience must have an appropriate penalty,
but yelling ain't it. Teaching, encouraging, recognizing and
rewarding good behavior works even better. Note: ya gotta lead from
in front: teach by example. "Do as I say, not as I do" flat doesn't
work.