TheSamba.com :: View topic - Kids "helping" while you work on your van

Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:01 pm

Like most 3 1/2 year olds, my son wants to be with and help me when I am working on the van. Normally, I dread it, as I am concentrating on a specific task, he starts fiddling with my tools (like takes the wrench and starts going to town on the interior metal work or screw driver and starts poking all sorts of places), I tell him to please stop, he does for a short while, get's bored and does it all over again until I say let's go in the house.

Tonight I was working on my water system after pulling my interior, hooking up my new pump. So, everything is in place, I fill the tank with a couple of inches of water, turn the switch on my new Shurflo mod/pump - nothing. Damn. Check my wires, nothing. So, I pull out my test light to see if I have power to the pump. Nope.

Man. What now....

My son comes out and starts fiddling. "Hey, dad, the lights work again!," meaning the LED lights on the stove. He does this while I am touching wires with my test light. On goes my light! I yell, "hooray!," he yells, "hooray!" and is very, very pleased that he has helped dad.

I've never had the system work in our van so didn't know you needed to have the switch on for the LEDs in order for the water system to work.

I just thought I'd share our father/son bliss and that, sometimes, the kids can REALLY help.

:lol:

As a side note, I continued to fill the water tank and found several leaks.

One was on the drain to the sink, where the metal drain meets the sink. Crud at the meeting of the two pieces of metal.

The other occurred in the fill tube as it enters the tank itself. I replaced all the tubing and it appears that the replacement tube is a bit larger than the stock tube and I need a larger O ring and different clamp.

Upon inspection, I also hope that the rubber grommets around the sensor connections aren't leaking. THAT would suck, it seems.

Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:25 am

Good times. 8)

Congrats on your victory. :D

Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:08 am

i think its great, good bonding, a little annoying i have two boys old enough to fiddle, and poke and pry what i found works is i give em old beat parts that are junk, a few tools..lay em out and let him go to town..hammer poke prod all you want...kids seem to love creepers too! whenever i get annoyed i try to remember pretty soon, they wont even want to talk with me as a lot of teenagers rebel but just maybe he/s 8) 8) :lol: he will inherit the van and the legacy will keep on rollin :P

Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:38 am

Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:03 am

I grew up working on the vaagon with my father onjobs we could do orwhen we had the time when my parents had moved to newer more reliable cars and it had spent 36 months at a shop (never going back now) it was pased on to me and i now work on it and my father helps and ocasionally gets in the way.

Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:42 am

Find related jobs for your kids to do such as tearing down and reassembling old but real parts. Also have them help whenever you really do need two people for a job. Even a 3-4 year old can pump the brakes while you bleed them. You can even let them try their hand at the bleeding. Who cares if you waste a few ounces of brake fluid doing so.

I had my kids helping me from the point they were big enough to pick up a wrench. Got a tire that needs to be removed? Break the lug nuts loose yourself and then let the little ones turn them off. Make sure they count how many nuts there are and know its their duty to keep track of them. Then let them rethread the nuts when the wheels go back on. Once they weigh enough to do it, any kid can torque the lug nuts correctly with a click type torque wrench.

Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:46 am

Geez, this got me thinking...

When I was a kid, there was nothing I wouldn't take apart (often to my mother's horror). Put back together... eh, not so much.

Occasionally my Dad would change the oil, do a brake job, and other maintenance jobs on the family cars.

It just dawned on me that my mother must have distracted me nearly every time Dad did one of these jobs. My mother, the wise woman that she is, knowing full well that if she didn't occupy my small hands somehow, the chances would be high that there would be a wrench-meets-skull incident in the garage due to my tendency to dismantle things.

I should get her some flowers... :D

Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:43 am

I love the fact that my boys (7, 5, and 2) come out to help work on the van. I especially appreciate turning the ignition and having the windshield wipers suddenly come on full bore. Oh, and the little light above the glove box on in the morning... and the battery meter LEDs... and the radio faceplate hanging... and the :roll: :lol:

Wouldn't trade it for the world though!

Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:53 am

I'll you what my kid wants to do...

He wants to "help himself" to driving my Westy to school, etc. Nice try...

:lol:

I'm sure his girlfriend's parents would love to see a Westy pull up in front of their house!!!

:twisted:

Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:51 pm

They don't really help, my 6 and 4 year boys think they are helping, but it so worth it to have their full attention. Question after question anything to pull the damb Wii control out of their hands. Great bonding times. They think I'm their Westy Hero. :D

Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:15 pm

Have you ever had them request their birthday party in your Vanagon?

Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:42 pm

My grandson Gabriel comes to help me a lot. I finally got his mom to get him some overalls so we didnt have to argue about the grease on his clothes ($2 used). So I throw his overalls on and plop him in the middle of what ever I'm doing. Having him work with me keeps me calm and makes me work slower and its a lot more fun, we have to take walks often and just wonder away. He napped on the front floor, I like having him around.

I think is will be a Syncro Westfalia SVX again someday.

Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:43 pm

This got me thinking....As far back as I can remember I was my dads official light holder and tool fetcher. He worked on all of the cars in the family and friends as well. There was never a job he could not figure out and everything always left the garage working great.
Now sooner or later it was my turn show what Ive learned by watching. My dad one day said he needed to tune up the old 62 ss Impala and give it an oil change. (with a very sweat 327 installed) So he took my mothers car to work that day so he could work on a cold engine when he got back home later that day. Well being the good boy that I was I decided to help him out. So at age 7 in the summer of 78 I preformed my first official tune up and oil change on my very own. Points, plugs, cap, condenser, oil filter and of course fresh oil.
I was very proud of the work I done and was very excited to tell my dad that instead of working on the car he could just sit back and relax after work. Well the moment came he pulled into the drive way at exactly 3:20 just like he did every other day and came in the house. Now I didn't at the time understand why when I told my father what I had done for him he seemed to have turned a little gray in the face and was clearly flustered. :shock: After all Ive watched him do this countless times. He very quickly (I would call it panic today) went outside to check on his car, checked out all of my work pulled the dipstick and then went to the front seat to fire it up........flick of the switch and it purred like a kitten. He calmed down, his color came back to his face and he was very impressed with it all.
Being a father myself now and owning a Van that is very important to me I understand so much more clearly why he seemed to have aged right before my eyes back on that hot summer day.
Well It was a dang good childhood and yes my own kids want to help out as well......why not.... let them get dirty show them shop safety and let them be included as well. Its only nuts and bolts after all it can always be fixed.....again. :wink:
Thanks for the memory bump.
Tracey

Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:17 pm

Tracey wrote: This got me thinking....As far back as I can remember I was my dads official light holder and tool fetcher. He worked on all of the cars in the family and friends as well. There was never a job he could not figure out and everything always left the garage working great.

Good story, that is the way childhood should be IMHO. My dad was eight when he got a 22 rifle for his birthday along with the instructions not to bother to come home at night if he didn't bring home something to eat. His intro to cars was being handed the keys by his dad at the age of 14 and being expected to teach himself how to drive. Nothing like being handed responsibility when young to get you to grow up straight.

Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:08 pm

My old man, who always wanted a Westy, always had me standing around when he'd work, fetching tools, holding lights, getting fluids, pumping brakes, that sort of thing--but, mostly, as he said, so I'd learn.

:shock:

Man, did I learn a lot of profanity...

:shock:

Best!

Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:42 am

Same kid 4 years later

Future sand blaster

Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:25 pm

msinabottle wrote: My old man, who always wanted a Westy, always had me standing around when he'd work, fetching tools, holding lights, getting fluids, pumping brakes, that sort of thing--but, mostly, as he said, so I'd learn.

:shock:

Man, did I learn a lot of profanity...

:shock:

Best!

Hah yeah same here..... I also learned that if you throw your tools in a pissed of mechanicaly inclined Hitler type rage rant, you will be the one finding said thrown tools.... :lol: :lol:

I was always with my Dad helping him work on stuff when I was knee high to Grasshopper. Probably why I am a hopeless Volkswagen Addict.

I get my 16yr old sister to help me some times but she can be a biatch and calls my Westy a "Queer mobile" :twisted: :twisted:

Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:35 pm

My favorite is when I open up the vents and turn the heater on only to have my feet get showered with pennies, nickels, quarters, and whatever else my kids found in the ashtray before dropping them into those cool slots on the dashboard. I always end up yelling JACKPOT!

Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:14 pm

"I think I found the funny noise, sir"

Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:07 am

squeegee_boy wrote: "I think I found the funny noise, sir"

VW GREMLINS!!!