Thread: I feel sick.

Originally Posted by Bruce

I can distinctly remember thinking that had he only told me about this not-to-do before I did it, I would have never climbed on the darned car.

That's the thing.
What seems non-obvious to us seems perfectly normal to a kid. In my case, I told my kids not to color on the wall or furniture. I never mentioned the grouting between the floor tiles because it's something I would not even think of. I can hardly spank them for doing something they did not know was wrong. At age 2, you cannot really expect kids to have well thought out actions

My daughters have always seen me with sharp objects. I told them to never ever touch them without my say so. And then I taught them how to pick up a razor safely and give it to me, should they ever find one unsupervised. And finally, I told them they would get a big reward if they ever brought me a razor or knife if they found one and gave it to me safely.

These days my kids (4 and 6) enjoy nothing more than to be in the basement with me. they have their own crafts / hammering table in between my tools, where they can use their real hammers with real nails and real pliers. It's not that they cannot safely work with tools and stuff. It's just a matter of being very explicit in what is or is not allowed.