Feels Good to Know My Son Pays Attention

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Dec 12, 2006
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Location
LI, NY
My son calls me yesterday. He's 18 and bought his first car, a 2005 Ram Quad Cab, last spring. He went to get it inspected and it failed because his driver side tie rod end was weak. They quoted him like 365 bucks to replace it, align it and reinspect. I said go to Mars (an old school auto parts place nearby) and buy both sides. We'll replace em and then have them align it and inspect it.
So I got home and he had the truck in the driveway, rear wheels chocked, front up on jackstands and front wheels off. I showed him how to use the fork to pound out the old ones. I reach for the new parts and notice that they're considerably beefier than the old ones. He says yeah, they asked me if I wanted regular or heavy duty. I asked what was the difference. The guy says the regular ones have a plastic bushing and the heavy duty has bronze. Ten dollars more. My son said to me, I don't know what bronze is but I know you wouldn't have bought plastic.
I was happy. At least I know he pays attention to what I say to him.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Researcher.
Here's the sad part... His older brother, is my wife's son with her ex. I've been around him since he was ten. He's 31 now. Good kid, has a great job, nice wife and a nice house but zero talent. I tried and tried for years to teach him basic mechanical and carpentry skills for years. Went in one ear and out the other. I told him over and over you better make a lot of money when you grow up.
Now he's a homeowner and has his first child on the way. NOW he wants to know how to do things.
 
It’s nice to hear stories like this. They absolutely do listen even when they don’t appear to.

Few months ago I was changing the oil with my 13 year old son and he didn’t look too interested. But he did remove the cartridge oil filter and installed a new one. I showed him how the Fumoto valve works.
Wouldn’t you know, few weeks go by and he asks me when the oil will need changing again lol.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Researcher.
Here's the sad part... His older brother, is my wife's son with her ex. I've been around him since he was ten. He's 31 now. Good kid, has a great job, nice wife and a nice house but zero talent. I tried and tried for years to teach him basic mechanical and carpentry skills for years. Went in one ear and out the other. I told him over and over you better make a lot of money when you grow up.
Now he's a homeowner and has his first child on the way. NOW he wants to know how to do things.
31 is not too late to learn these things, you can fix his stuff while you're babysitting. ;)
 
Thanks for the kind words, Researcher.
Here's the sad part... His older brother, is my wife's son with her ex. I've been around him since he was ten. He's 31 now. Good kid, has a great job, nice wife and a nice house but zero talent. I tried and tried for years to teach him basic mechanical and carpentry skills for years. Went in one ear and out the other. I told him over and over you better make a lot of money when you grow up.
Now he's a homeowner and has his first child on the way. NOW he wants to know how to do things.
Better late than never
 
Thanks for the kind words, Researcher.
Here's the sad part... His older brother, is my wife's son with her ex. I've been around him since he was ten. He's 31 now. Good kid, has a great job, nice wife and a nice house but zero talent. I tried and tried for years to teach him basic mechanical and carpentry skills for years. Went in one ear and out the other. I told him over and over you better make a lot of money when you grow up.
Now he's a homeowner and has his first child on the way. NOW he wants to know how to do things.
hey you're welcome... interesting about the 31 year old.. but like everyone else said, better late than never..

I know when I was about 9 or 10 years old my dad was changing the oil in one of our cars and asked if I wanted to help.. That was the start of me becoming a car guy! Plus it was fun to hang out with my dad. Now that he's gone those memories are nice to have, happy times to remember.
 
Being the same age as old people (78). I've been working on cars a long time. My dad knew nothing about cars. He couldn't change spark plugs even if he could have found them. I had to learn it all by myself. At an early age, someone said why pay someone a lot of money to screw up your car, when you can screw it up yourself for a lot less money. Made sense to me. I have never looked back.
 
Just like colleagues at work, there are those that are willing and motivated to work on a car/motorcycle, and those that are not. Beyond helping them to build their confidence, very difficult to change their attitude, even if family members. Finding most these days would rather spend their time doing other things and pay others to do the work. Concluded it's either in their DNA or not.
 
That the OP's 18 year old son didn't know what bronze was is a little disturbing.

We bought a friend's son (11 at the time ?) a basketball and he was grateful. He then showed me 7 basketballs he "wore out".
They needed air. Niether he nor the father knew what an inflation needle was.
That was very disturbing.
 
Nice. Gotta start somewhere.

Be grateful. My son doesn’t care. I’d push him but since he’s disabled I know he’ll never be the one under the car. The on time I tried to get him to change oil showed it was too hard for him.

Now my daughter… once I get her a car, it might be different. I suspect she won’t be doing any car work herself but I think she’ll listen enough to learn the basics. We’ll see.
 
That the OP's 18 year old son didn't know what bronze was is a little disturbing.

We bought a friend's son (11 at the time ?) a basketball and he was grateful. He then showed me 7 basketballs he "wore out".
They needed air. Niether he nor the father knew what an inflation needle was.
That was very disturbing.
I can never remember which alloy is bronze and which is brass. One is copper-zinc, and the other is copper-tin.

Just looked it up - brass is copper-zinc.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Researcher.
Here's the sad part... His older brother, is my wife's son with her ex. I've been around him since he was ten. He's 31 now. Good kid, has a great job, nice wife and a nice house but zero talent. I tried and tried for years to teach him basic mechanical and carpentry skills for years. Went in one ear and out the other. I told him over and over you better make a lot of money when you grow up.
Now he's a homeowner and has his first child on the way. NOW he wants to know how to do things.

As for your 18 year old, it’s always a proud moment when you realize that they’ve absorbed what you‘ve taught them. As for the 31 year old, you might cut him some slack. I wouldn’t say he has “zero talent”,…some peoples talents lie elsewhere. I’m talented in a lot of things, but dum as a bag of hammers in others, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.
As you said, he has a great job, nice Wife, and a nice house, so he must be doing something right. At least he’s willing to try again. 😉🍻
 
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True. He is a good person and he has his life together. It just bugs me because all the years raising him my wife always made sure I was taking time to teach him. I went out of my way plenty. We still butt heads when I’ll suggest he needs a battery or tires and he thinks he knows better.
 
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