On Thu, 21 Jan 2021 16:51:44 +0000, R D S wrote:

On 21/01/2021 15:12, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Because the skills involved can be used for lots of other things too?

Indeed, plus the joy of getting a job done yourself that you're proud
of. (Assuming you ultimately gain those skills!)

And that's the thing.

I have been into stuff since I was very young, making electrical
projects (all on my own, no peer or mentor of such things at home)
when I was still at primary school.

I build a 6' rowing dinghy in woodwork 'lessons?' at Secondary School,
had already stripped and rebuilt a car engine before I was taught how
to at Technical College.

In our electronics class at TC we (12 of us) all assembled ZX81 kits.
Mine was one of the few that worked first time and I spend the next
term repairing all the rest. I was interested and willing to
apply the relevant skills and attention to detail.

When the Decwriter / modem link went wrong in the 'computer room',
they would come and drag me out of my class to fix it!? (I was 15-17
at that point).

*Very few* of my fellow classmates had anything like the interests in
stuff that I had, and that was then. Few of my mates ever did much
practical stuff (and only one was very similar to me, building /
racing RC boats and cars, rebuilding / upgrading real cars etc).

Neither of us got our interest from our parents.

So, I tried to instill the same practical leaning in my daughter,
bringing her up as a 'person', rather than 'a girl' (at that time
etc), building stuff for / with her and encouraging her to help / try
stuff whenever possible ... and whilst she does do most the work when
working on her car / van / motorbike (under supervision) and she's
particularly good at sharpening her own chainsaw chains, I wouldn't
say that she has the sort of 'buck stops here' confidence I had at
that age.

At her age now (30) I'd had a house for 10 years and had personally
done everything that needed doing, gas, electric, water, floors and
removed chimney breasts etc, not because I had done any of that to any
real level before, but because I couldn't afford to pay the mortgage
AND pay someone else to do it all?

So I didn't have a flash car, I had a Morris Minor van because 1) it
was cheap (£25 + £5 for a s/h gearbox I had to fit in the shop car
park I bought it from to be able to drive it home) and 2) it was
practical when you were rebuilding a house (and running a home built
mobile disco weekends). ;-)

I built the kitcar (with the Mrs this time) because I was fed up
welding cars of the time.

Daughter will often 'have a go' at stuff and was the 'go-to' person
when she worked (in the cash office at Next) for building their
display furniture and decorating the display areas.

She re-decorated the flat after her half-sister died and the 'cutting
in' would put most of us to shame (even me). ;-)

I have given up saying to people 'all you have to do is ...' because I
now realise some people really don't have a clue, the tools or (more
importantly), the interest.

As mentioned elsewhere though, it's also good / important to know your
limits / skillset / cost_for_risk_ratio and for me that would be the
likes of plastering and roofing. I am also no good at programming (try
that I might) and like chess, too many 'important' variables to keep
in yer head for me (and my right brain).

Cheers, T i m