WORKING WITH MY DAUGHTER

[chambezio]

Usually in "my kingdom" the stuff I do in my shed is only ever worked on by me because to ask for assistance is like asking for the keys to the treasury. Well we have a VS 1995 Commodore which my youngest daughter pretty well drives all the time. [She is 24 and still lives with us while she hunts for a job in computers. She wants to get into the hardware side of computers, you know trouble shooting or assembling a computer to suit some ones needs. (Alas no jobs around).]

She came to me weeks ago and said that the trip meter/odometer was not working. I told her that being the age that the car is, spending anything on it needs to be weighed up. She went on line and found a "How To" on pulling apart the instrument cluster and replacing a plastic gear that commonly fails. She also found said gear on Ebay. She was a little insistent that the job needed to be done so I made her a deal, that she would do the job with me as an assistant.

Well the gear turned up....on the computer it looked the size of a 50c coin but in reality it is half the size of a 5c coin.

Today was the day for surgery. She can out to the shed with her lap top, to follow the how to and away we went. She has her own tool kit for such things (instruments) that she uses on her computers. I supplied a big screwdriver and long nosed pliers. The operation took a couple of hours and we are both still talking to each other. There was a lot of small fiddly bits that she handled easily (my fat fingers would have been struggling).

A couple of plastic lugs snapped during disassembly so I piled on some silicone during reassembly, trying to avoid any squeaks while driving. the test drive showed that the job was successful.

We were able to effect a repair that could easily have been $200 and I had the experience working with my daughter. OK so what you may say......well for me I thought it was a special time

[Opelblues2]

it all ways is when its your little girl, and it doesn't matter how old they get they still are

[chambezio]

The older one is 28. When she was quite small she would venture out to see what I was up to but if I turned on a machine she would shoot back inside. The younger one....I even took her to work a couple of times. At that time I was working in a shed and making door jambs and swinging the doors in them for a transportable house builder. She would play with short off cuts of rebated jamb material in the dust on the floor pretending they were cars. She can also do a reasonable job on the wood lathe too. Well all that was quite a while ago and thats why today was that bit special.

[crowie]

Now that's a story well worth sharing....12 out of 10 sir and to your daughter, damn she's going to make some employer a good employee.....

[rwbuild]

[kyaden]

That's so great, I love it when my Dad spends time with me working on things together it's certainly great bonding time

[wheelinround]

Great times well done.

Forget about working for someone else she she has just proven she can handle her own business. I will say tho in a small town its going to be hard but its growing bigger all the time.



I know what its like to work in the workshop with my daughter and the tension rises its hard to NOT be the parent yet still teach. Well this week she proved (she is 36) all the years of assisting dad with auto repairs, woodwork, metalwork and her own working in industry she has and these were not hands on. Their dry died, belt gone, but the idler pully had melted being plastic. Qoute from tradesman $150hr plus parts. She sourced a drive belt which goes right round he dry tub and the pully $30 all up an fitted while hubby watched. He's not so much into tools walked out on an engineering degree.

[chambezio]

Ray yours is a great story too!!!
It astounds me how some blokes just don't have a clue about the simplest of things. I have a mate with 2 sons. One is an electrician the other is a fitter machinist. Dad...can do minor things on the house and car but always "needs a hand" to do a lot of things.
My daughter did her TAFE course certificates a couple of years ago and has been job hunting ever since. To keep her hand in, she bought, off EBay, an old lap top. Turned it on and tested it. She diagnosed it was over heating and I think the hard drive had a problem as well as the key pad. She sourced all the parts necessary and rejuvenated the lap top. She did it as an "experiment" (of her capabilities) and now has it as a "spare". At the moment, as a condition of her dole, she does volunteer work for a retirement home in their office 3 days a week. She likes the work, which is very varied but they don't have the funding to give her a paid job.

[Sturdee]

I just finished working this last week with my daughter as well. She took a week holiday and paved the bbq area with concrete pavers that she selected.

She calculated the materials needed, ordered them and did most of the work of laying 150 pavers doing all the heavy work with me doing the lighter work of helping and cutting the pavers to size with the big angle grinder.

The whole area looks great and the best part is that not only did she do most of the work she also paid for the pavers.

A job well done and one that I could not have done with my health problems.

Peter.

[Bushmiller]

Rod

It was good to hear the story and probably the best one I've heard of (not that they aren't out there as Peter's and Ray's stories are testimony to that) since Underfoot had his daughter do all the major work on his large Sculpture commission when he was out of action.

I haven't met your daughter, but from what I know of you, you would have been beaming from ear to ear by the end of it: Terrific stuff.

Regards
Paul

[rsser]

It's priceless to be able to be proud of your kids.

[Old farmer]

Many thanks for all who have contributed to this thread with warming stories.
We have four boys and then a beautiful daughter so, of course, she is special.
She rode her pony when she was 6 and she and I would race with me holding in my great Chestnut and the pony half a length in front.
At the finish, with the pony still ahead, and my cove absolutely disgusted with me, she would turn to me laughing, eyes brilliant, face flushed.
She had my heart in her hands.
Still has.

[Christos]

What a great story.

[Old farmer]

Many thanks, mate.