Crazy Busy Weekend

It's been a busy weekend.  We spent a good portion of yesterday out at the farm helping to get the fields ready for planting.  After about 2 and a half hours, I took the younger 4 home for naps since they were more getting in the way than helping. The rest of the crew stayed until 5:00.  A decent amount of work was done, a dead chicken was unearthed, and a few teens just might have snuck off for some computer time.  Maybe.

 The project for this afternoon was to put in our own small garden at home for the year.  The original plans called for using the raised bed planter already in the yard. But that just did not work. Seems the ground has sunk or something. So the guys had to start from scratch.

I'm realizing there are two kinds of fathers when it comes to projects and kids. There are the ones who do an awesome job at just about everything. Perfectionism is a character trait for them it seems. If a job is going to be done, it will be done perfectly.  Which means the children may not help or get involved because they will get in the way.  These guys often can't figure out why it is when their own children have grown that they have not absorbed any of the hands-on skills they possess.

Then there are the dads who have figured out how to work with their kids. That even though it does indeed take

twice as long at first to do any project with small hands involved, the dividends are something amazing.  I promise you their projects won't look perfect. Folks will perhaps point out where they went wrong or a line that's not straight. But those people are rude and failed to look behind the picture to see the joy in the kid's face who got to help Dad and learned something useful. Kids know the difference between busy work and useful work.  They want to be useful. They want to help.  And with some kids, you are much better off directing their use of the screw driver.  Trust me. (And maybe one day ask me about the time Liam met his Dad at the front door with his hands full of screws. Or why Liam is never allowed to watch the Enterprise episode where Tripp talks about taking all the screws out of his parents' dining room table. )

Yup, my kids are lucky.  They've got a Dad who figured out it's much better to do it the hard way and let everyone chip in.  The rewards are truly amazing.