A great day with the kids

The other day I had a long talk with my kids. I told them that I understood this was their summer vacation and that although they had been away almost the entire summer, now that they were home I was concerned that all I saw them doing was playing Xbox and watching TV. It’s okay to hang out, I said, but this constant TV and computer thing was starting to get me worried. Where was their spirit of adventure and sports. Why weren’t they outside with a million friends doing something.

“Dad, we’ve been with our friends at camp all summer” they told me, “give us a break…we just want to veg.”

I did not give them a hard time although I did leave them with a little food for thought.

“Try to use at least some of your time wisely,” I said. “Be creative. Make something. Write something. Compose music. Make a video. Do something that has some lasting quality. Essentially, be creative.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah….sure Dad, whatever.”

In one ear and out the other. Or so I thought. Today, after we had lunch and I was heading back home, my boys asked me to drive them to Home Depot. I looked at them curiously.

“You’ll see,” they assured me.

Once at the store, they took out a piece of paper and roamed the aisles in search of wood, nuts, bolts, screws, wheels, rope and other miscellaneous items. We checked out, came home and they’ve been in the garage ever since. At around five, they called me in to the garage to inspect their work. There, in the middle of the garage floor was an old fashioned go cart like the kind they used to race in soap box derbies. To say I was impressed was an understatement. I was blown away. We threw it in the car and headed for the smoothest sloped stretch of asphalt we could find. A truly great afternoon.

I might have annoyed them the day before, but boy were my annoying words taken to heart. They had it in them all along. It just took an annoying dad to bring it out and get them away from the TV.