Power tools.

This project arose during a rainy Saturday. He said no to going to the museums. It was too wet to play outside. So, we demoed an old table and started to build him a workbench.

Most adventures need an element of risk. A 4 year old wildly swinging a hammer and using power tools felt like an adequate amount of risk.

Trying to build something with the very hands-on and insistent help of a toddler is challenging. He wanted to do everything, which not only slowed down the process but was also a bit nerve wracking at times.

It helped me to focus on what I was ultimately trying to achieve. A quant workbench that would excite social media? That would be nice, but it wasn’t what I really wanted.

I wanted us to take on a project and have fun together. I wanted him to see me work through problems, both with logistics of building something from scratch and also his emotional turbulence of growing frustrated.

The workbench is fine. It’s not beautiful. It’s already cluttered (as soon as we finished, he said it needed to “look like dada’s” and began heaping everything he could reach on top).

It was a successful endeavor in finding ways to spend time together. In creating something, both physical and memorable.