"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
(snip)

Besides, I thought it was the parent's job to ensure that their kid's
learned these types of life skills. My kids boys both took shop, but
the vast majority of what they learned about taking care of their cars
and houses either came from me or was introduced by me and then they
took it the next few steps.

I once showed my youngest son how to change his brake pads and the
next thing I knew he was doing a full brake job - rotors, calipers and
pads - on a junker that his older brother bought.

Sometimes they just need to be introduced to the subject matter and I
think that that introduction is my responsibility.

Well, I'm no parent, but I am a big brother. After my parents split up
and my kid sisters were living with our mother 800-some miles away from
our father, I tried. On my monthly trips down there to the old home town
to visit, rather than just fix whatever was broken, or change whatever
they wanted changed, I would show them how to do it. And when they got
interested in driving, I showed them around how a car works, not with
the thought that they would ever actually do much themselves, but so
they would know when a guy (their age or at a garage) was blowing smoke
at them. From ages 11-16 or so, it worked pretty well. But then they
discovered BOYS!, and fell into the cliche of thinking females had to
play dumb about stuff like that.

After years and years of watching close friends and family fall in and out
of love like drunks in canoes, I've concluded that the "helpless little
female" is actually a built in, hardwired part of the courtship ritual.
Australia's bowerbirds build houses to impress the ladies. If it's built
into a bird's brain, chances are good it's built into ours.

I recall developing a very strong urge to build, build, build coming on at
about age 16 and lasting for a good ten years. I built a darkroom with
plumbing and electric, garage cabinets from birch ply and eventually
graduated to making bookcases for friends from oak, maple, mahogany,
learning to veneer, learning how to use mortise and tenon construction, etc.
I've not met a whole lot of women who build their own furniture, although
there are some. I think it's genetic.

I've (over)heard women talk about how much they appreciate their
husband/boyfriend's ability to fix the small things that break in a house.
Maybe it's saving money that counts or perhaps not having to have some
unknown person wandering around the home is the reason. I used to put up
closet poles and bookshelves for friends and neighbors, and they were very
greatful (BUT - - - I always made them watch and help) but it was like
Iraq. Once you start, you're responsible for anything that ever happens to
anything that was hung from that pole or place on that shelf.

It wasn't until post-college, when they
were out on their own, that I could see some of the knowledge had indeed
stuck, and they were doing some small stuff hands-on for themselves. My
house-warming presents for both of them, for their first post-college
abodes, were small tool kits of the household basics.

Interesting. I've tried to segregate my tools by task, such as a toolbox
for routine auto maintenance, another for CATV wiring, another for 110-240
VAC electrical work, plumbing, shelf installing, telephone repair, etc.

I've seen a lot of very unsatisfactory small tool kits sold by the usual
suspects, but nothing that I thought contained what a basic, but serious,
multitasking tool kit should contain. I've been looking at some
multi-function tools for car kits for my "new" old vehicle. I am spoiled,
though: the first car I ever rebuilt was a Jaguar Mk10 and it had the
original Jag toolkit untouched in the "boot." A bonanza of multiple fixed
wrenches, adjustable ones, pliers, special tools for various tasks in a
fitted, guitar-picked shaped metal box that sat inside the left rear fender.

--
Bobby G.