Tuesday, March 6, 2012

What Every Boy Should Know.


My whole day was ruined, all appointments were missed, all plans were canceled but a kid needed help.

As I walked to the curb to check my mail, "Mr. John, can you help me?", a kid from the neighborhood asked.
The kid had taken his little brother's Green Machine (Better than a Big Wheel. Big Wheels always get a hole in the plastic front tire and this makes the toy almost impossible to pedal.) apart to change a flat tire but he got stuck trying to put it back together.

Apparently, many parents are too busy working to buy their kids toys but few take the time to show them how to repair them.
Within an hour I had a bike repair shop in my garage an across my driveway.
Some mothers were upset that their boys (and a couple of girls) had gotten dirty.
I guess they just assumed that I would fix the bikes as their children gossiped and watched me work.
But what's the good in this?
Isn't it better to teach these kids to do the work themselves?

4 comments:

Val said...

Yep, teach them to fish, UBJ!

Brohammas said...

I once took my big wheel off a jump and it bent the plastic under the seat so that it drug on the ground everywhere I went.
Of course I still rode it till the plastic wore through.

amanda said...

I wish some-one had shown my son how to take apart and then put back together again a bike. There were four little pieces of metal left forlorn on the ground after he attempted to repair mine and one gear was totally absent.

Naturally I could not do the repair myself as no-one had ever taught me either, as a child it was a job given to my brother.

Reggie said...

You're one helluva human being my brother.