Do you ever wonder if your kids will ever have YOUR level of mechanical skill?
 

I grew up taking my toys apart and learning how the mechanical toys worked. I put together models of cars, boats and planes.

My kids just play video games and show very little interest in anything automotive or anything mechanical.

What are you guys doing to counterbalance the video game problem?

From what I've seen, this doesn't indicate that your kids are not capable of achieving it, but like almost ALL kids today, they have absolutely no interest in it.

When I was growing up, not only was I hanging around my Dad's shop, but I was always tinkering, fixing, dismantling, destroying or whatever. Kids just don't do that any more.

I work in a large plant with LOTS of sophisticated automation. It is REALLY difficult to find electricians and mechanical maintenance people. We've had lots of discussion about this and we have come to the conclusion that the explanation above is why that is.

I may be WAY off base with this theory, because it is at least partially based on anecdotal evidence, but I think it's true.

I don't wonder about it, I know about it, as my boys are 18 and 21. One has a fair bit of mechanical skill, but doesn't care much about cars, the other is a car encyclopedia, but doesn't care much about the mechanicals.

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D, 370K

I'm not much ahead of your kids...but I've got the mechanical interest. Despite growing up in the age of video games, I still tinkered and tore apart and put things together and stuff...I think it's just some people's nature. As far as video games go, I think there would be a good bridge between the subjects if the kids are playing stuff like Gran Turismo or Forza, which rely on technical aspects that can be demonstrated in practice.

My children had no desire to learn any of this stuff except to wonder why I had so many different kinds of tools.

And then one day I showed my Son how to replace the brake pads on his Porsche. He was stunned at how easy it was and he was even more stunned at how much money he had just saved since all he paid for was a set of pads.

Why did the shop charge so much for such a simple job? That was all he wanted to know. Because they can do it and you can't was the only reason I could give him.

So he got interested pretty quick and so did the other Kids. Even my Daughter knows her way around a set of tools now.

All I had to do was to show them how it was to their advantage to learn and they went after it.

My son and my daughter did what was necessary to be on wheels. My son and I restored a 65 Chevy pickup before he was sixteen. He did a lot of work because it was necessary to have wheels, not because of an interest in it. He is capable but not interested.

My daughter probably had more interest than my son. We raced karts together and she was a great driver. When she showed up all the boys knew that they were racing for second place. She didn't do much work on her kart, but she had no choice but to do the work on her first car, an 81 300D. Under my supervision of course, she put brake pads, shocks, a voltage regulator, did her own oil changes and a few other things. I was amazed at her natural ability to handle tools.

There again with both of them it was just a price of having wheels, not an interest that drew their attention.

My son has never had any interest. My youngest daughter (the Architect) seems interested in mechanical things.

I have some grandsons who seem interested in cars and such. I hope to be able long enough to autocross with some of the grankids. The oldest now is 10. She is going on 17 though.

Yikes!:eek:

I hope she has better judgement than her grandmother did.:P

I involve my three children in lots of my car building projects and the DIY projects around the house. The eldest who is nearly seven has his own saw and hammer. I try to not let him run down the battery on the cordless screwdriver though...

...my twin daughters are not yet four but they're allowed to pass tools and hold ends of wood that are being cut etc.

Everyone is allowed to climb up the step ladder to look at what needs to be done. As a result it takes about ten times longer to get things done - but hey if you want to involve your children in this type of work I guess you need to spend the time doing it with them.

Do my children all love computer games? Yes sure! But they also want to help out their old Dad once in a while too. I hope I'll be able to keep my helpers for a little bit longer. I guess Dad will always be useful to know when the bicycle / scooter / motor bike / boat / car / plane needs some maintenance doing to it.

Video games are not entirely to blame -

Re the "PO Syndrome" thread in DD and the comments concerning the inflated cost of parts -

that seems to be the business model for the past couple of decades - either makes it so complicated and expensive to fix (ie, vehicles), or the opposite extreme of so cheaply made it isn't worth fixing - that the most economically feasible route for most people is to trade it off or throw it away and simply buy a new whatever.

I'm old enough to remember when TV repair shops were commonplace. But even by the early 90's, when I had the picture tube go out on a small 13" TV, the replacement tube by itself was more expensive than simply buying an entire new TV and trashing the old set.

And with cars - everything is now computer controlled, EPA or NHTSA mandated "thou shalt not touch", not even a dipstick for checking the tranny fluid or engine oil on some models - you're supposed to take it to the dealer or a professional to have every little item done or void the warranty - without some serious funds for aftermarket parts, there's nothing left for kids to tinker with except the stereo system and bling wheel rims.

Even PC/video games - which I agree fully share a good part of the blame - have devolved in the two or three decades they've been prevalent - I remember quite a few PC strategy and simulation games back in the 90's that required thought, decision making, and planning skills to enjoy and play successfully - nowadays it seems that all are "first person shooter" games - liitle more than the shooting gallery at a county fair.

good points man

No wondering here . . . number one son has already owned more cars in the past five years than I have in my lifetime; done engine transplants, worked on his friends cars, done bodywork and paint, parts fabrication and is now absorbed by tuning his new Ducati . . all financed by himself. Geez, he turns 25 on Saturday.

You might be onto something there retmil. When I was 13 I bought my first car for $12.50. It actually was sort of like a permit to get enough parts out of his wrecking yard to make a car. About $75 and a year later had a car, as long as you're not TOO strict about the definition.

That said, the $100 or so that it took seemed like $50,000 to me at the time.

A related factor though is that the 48 Chevy that I cobbled together was a VERY simple machine to deal with. For a kid to do this with a 25 year old car today would be much more of an electrical and mechanical challenge.

I'm probably in the "kids" section here, I'm 19 years old from germany, long time lurker on peachparts, so hello everyone :)

My parents likely wont post here, because they are both in the IT business, but I've still managed to become kind of a car person:

I own a w124 230E, done all the repairs it needed myself, without help; including a headgasket change. And i can't be all that bad at repairing it, because i've driven it 20 k km's and it still runs strong with 200k on the clock.

My car plans in the near future are:
-purchase a w124 300TD for cheap and fix up (looking at it this weekend)
or / and
- rescurrect a nearby T2 Mercedes Bus wich is for free :cool: but has, quote owner: "a broken engine" (google if you dont know what those are, i think they never sold them to the US of A)

So, not all that bad right? And I played a lot of video games :P

I can remember the big machines in stores that let you test your own radio tubes. For some odd reason where I grew up they were in drugstores as I recall.

TV repair shops. Shoemakers. Tailors. Small appliance repairs. Hell, GAS STATIONS that aren't just self-serve pumps and a convenience store full of junk food. I was in one last summer that was very large, easily 1100 square feet, but had maybe four square feet of shelf space devoted to auto needs.

My neighbour repairs lawn mowers and sells them. Many come out of people's garbage. I bird dog them for him on a regular basis. Some are 2-3 years old. They are so new he actually rings the doorbell and makes sure they're really in the trash, not just badly parked.

I see kids' bikes in excellent condition in the trash every summer. Not only do we have a charity locally that is actually devoted to recycling bikes to needy kids, every other thrift-store charity takes them to resell too. Wow.

I can't make up my mind if we've become too complacent to care about fixing or recyling perfectly good things, or instead it's just an indicator of worn out adults running around chained to crackberries who haven't got the energy to do anything outside their regular routine.

Like one of these?

Attachment 102956

Those machines were a profit center all by themselves. The bottom opened up and there were stocked the most popular tubes. It was all self service so when you found a bad tube you just picked up a new one, paid for it, and went home and plugged it in.

They could be placed anywhere there was a clear view from the cash register.

To the store owner it was just leave it there, plug it in, and someone came around and restocked it now and then. The profit on a tube was about 20% which was pretty good money for really doing nothing but dusting it off now and then.

Sort of like RedBox today.

Kids using video devices excessivly may not be learning enough of the general things involved in functioning. When and if it reaches the addictive stage a parent may be remiss by not stepping in.

Personally I would rather see a child doing almost anything else.

Surpassed my fathers level of mechanical skill moons ago. He calls me when he needs something done on his car(s). Problem is finding the time to work on it... :(

Its what allows me to keep the toys in my sig running at a cost where I can afford to keep them.

More on point - worked my way up on the wrenching food-chain, and now am playing with some Italian stuff during my free time.

When I was a little kid about 4, my grandmother used to get me to do stuff like replace the battery in her transistor radio (one of the first portables made).
It sparked my interest in how things worked.
A few years later I remember pulling my sisters dolls to bits to find out how they made a "mommy" noise when they were put down. Got into heaps of trouble for that.
I had my first car at the age of 12. Just for playing on the farm.
Had to fix it & keep it going so it wasnt sent for scrap metal.
In recent years over here in the cities they have started pre-apprentice studies for teenagers so that if they want to do an apprenticeship at least they know what way to turn a screw to undo it.
Probably kids on farms get much more exposure to mechanical things & so develop an interest.
Its way too easy for a parent to sit a young child in front of the idiot box.

My oldest daughter helped me, at the age of 5, in the garage when I was building my first drag car. She's capable of doing oil changes, brakes, and exhaust on her own, but won't...she has nails now. LOL

My younger daughter has helped me for years around the house and wiht vehicle maintenance...she'll be the same as her sister soon.

My son is my shadow on everything I do around the home or the rentals. We'll be starting a project tomorrow on the front porch, tearing off the old carpet, sanding the wood, and refinishing all of it.

My kids are well experienced with helping me on projects

I wouldn't necessarily blame video games; its also the current mentality towards young people's education.

I'm fairly young, 25, and was fortunate that my school had a shop program at all. I didn't take a single shop class until my Senior year, because before I was too concerned with what others thought. Learning mechanics and other trades meant you weren't on the college track and going to be successful like all the other kids taking advanced math, physics, chemistry, etc.

Schools are cutting, even abandoning their shop programs altogether, turning into nothing but a college prep school. Just about every kid tries to fit that mold because its what is expected by their peers, teachers, and parents. I was one of those who had no business being in college, but suffered through and got my degree anyway. I would have been much better off learning a trade or apprenticing at businesses I found interesting.

My father raced motorcycles, and during injuries or downtime would take apart his bikes to every nut and bolt and rebuild them. He never taught me any of that. Other than that one class in High School, I had not really turned a wrench. People thought my car was trouble prone because I would open the hood and check on things at every fill up.

Today I had to pay $66 to diagnose the check engine light for my 1996 C36 at the dealer. My mechanic didn't have the software for that specific model to properly diagnose it, and this car is going to be old enough to vote in a few years.

I'll bet you own that machine............:D

I snapped that picture 5 minutes before I posted it:D

Wanna buy it? ;)

I KNEW IT!!

Just need to start them young :D

skifte dekk - YouTube

Gilbert Erector set--the one with the VERY high torque 120V electric motor--with the exposed gears--no wimpy battery powered-will stall if you put your finger in it- motor.
I built a lot of stuff with that. Good toy. Learned a lot.

I actually still use it to fix console stereos.

I bet my oldest daughter can kick your daughters ass. :eek::D:D:D

Neat machine to test tubes with.

Thats awesome! I know a friend of mine is going to love that. I just emailed him the picture!

Some comments on topics of this thread (I'm 24):

Video games, I would say are not entirely responsible. Like TylerH said, attitude is a big one. Both of the parents and society. The big push towards college... the removal of trade type classes in high school.. My high school had a shop..up until they renovated, the space was converted into a study hall and art room. Not a lot of kids get the opportunity or exposure to the mechanical world. I bet if you exposed them to these things they would take up interest..at least some would. Maybe not all.

Certain video games can be more educational than others (RTS vs FPS). As it was mentioned in earlier a lot of video games of the late 90s were great for puzzles (Myst) and strategy (really the starting place of the PC RTS, Starcraft, C&C series,etc). Sadly much of this is gone in today's PC game world. I've watched several awesome franchises get dumbed down--C&C series games, Supreme Commander series, Empire Earth--and its annoying. I like my RTS complicated and involved. I like having to figure out how to counter the computer's attacks. I like having a boat load of options or the ability to customize everything. Now, I think the RTS genre is slowly dying. PC game development (at least on a technical--push the boundaries level) has been stalled for the past few years.

I recently had an interview with a company up near Cleveland, OH and I was talking to their senior engineer. We were discussing education and the idea of "well rounded" back in his day, it meant something much different. You were expected to out into the real world and work with your hands as well as your brains.

Today I think there is less emphasis on working with you hands and more emphasis on going to college and getting a degree. And a problem with just getting a degree is, it can be rather expensive to the point where it forces you into getting a degree that is 'profitable' rather than one that is more interesting to you. Tuition has changed drastically in the past 30 years or so. I've read stories where people, back in the day, were able to work minimum wage jobs and afford to pay a semesters tuition.

All my kids are more mechanically inclined than I am. Fortunately.

I got into so much trouble taking my new camera apart when I was 10 or so. The way I saw it, anything with exposed screws was fair game, and I just HAD to see what was in there. Unfortunately I didn't have the experience then to know which things to just leave as they are.

Most consumer items today are not serviceable, so there goes a whole learning venue. A camera today is a sealed unit with no moving parts. Nothing to see here. Same with most everything else. Even if you can take it apart, you are then likely looking at some black module with 50 wires sticking out of it. Better put the cover back on and call somebody. This lack of experience and comfort level is why so many people are helpless when it comes to fixing that rare flat tire or replacing a light switch.

Seeing my younger son who is 20 holding a screwdriver is painful. He will honestly ask what to do with it. Though not all is lost. Lately he has become the hero at his college house for unjamming the garbage disposal and tightening washer hoses. So now he is king among similarly clueless young people. As others have said, if natural curiosity isn't there, then necessity and cost will be the motivators.

The local school district just recently voted to drop some of the college prep courses in favor of vo-tech style classes. I was one of the number of parents that attended the meetings leading up to the vote.

Our district will be working with local businesses, sending kids to them for training and education at the high school level, and will be bringing woods and metals classes back next year. As it was explained by myself and a few other dads prior to the vote, "Not every child is cut out for college level courses, especially when the district's graduates generally need a year or so of remedials. It's better to see it now, at the school age, and start teaching them basic skills needed to gain a foothold in a sector that will be kicking up in the very near future"

I think my boy will do okay. He loves to grab the multimeter and experiment on his battery-powered toys. He helps me tinker on the jalopy 300SD, and a year or two ago he helped me do a top-end rebuild on a '98 Harley-Davidson.

Now, if I could just convince him to put the tools back where he found them. :rolleyes:

This thread brings to mind one of the ultimate tinkerers, Henry Ford. His Mom died while he was still pretty small so he was quite young when she caught him rebuilding a watch during Church. She took him outside and tanned his hide. Even after getting a whipping he was excited because he managed to make the watch run again.

At the Henry Ford museum, that watch is on display in a line of his early mechanical accomplishments in chronological order.

I wonder how many 11 or 12 year olds at any point in history could slip a watch apart and back together. I'm sure back in the day, there were some, but not many.

The only way to do that is start him out with his own tools.:)

When I was small, my Dad had an independent auto repair business. In the first through fourth grades, one of my jobs was to keep tools clean and in place. I learned the importance of putting tools away at an early age.

I don't have kids yet, but I gave my nephew some LEGO models he can build and rebuild. Giving him more puzzle or building toys should help, especially if it's a model of a particular type they like (cars, houses, tools, etc).

Then I also let him play with his Hotwheels or Matchbox cars until they break apart. THEN, I show him how to fix it up. Last night they were visiting and I was watching Top Gear on TV. He was glued :D

Fists or tests??

Although my daughter is very intelligent, I would say fists. :D:D:D

You win...she's a wimp when it comes to things like that. LOL

Speak for yourself. It's 04 43 on a saturday morning. I have two stents. So who doesn't have energy?

have to go now, am going out to the property to mow it by hand.

Think you guys are worrying too much. If someone has the aptitude or interest, they can develop the skills needed, especially in this day and age of internet connectivity, and being able to pick the brains of other like minded enthusiasts for literally anything.

For example, I had a problem with my tv and was able to find some kids youtube video where he took it apart and replaced internal components, and its fixed. 10 minutes of research and mine was fixed too. 30 years ago I would have never been able to access that store of knowledge

Being involved with old vws as another hobby, I'm always amazed at just how many 16 year old kids have taken their car completely apart and put it back together to paint some inconsequential widget.

There are plenty of kids who have those skills, and can connect with other people to learn more and better stuff through avenues like forums. But everyone is different, I'm sure my grandfather the engineer had this exact same concern when he watched my dad unable to turn a wrench or help him effectively with around the house projects, and my dad the lawyer was I'm sure concerned that my powers of writing and reasoned argument were nothing compared to his, and so on. I wouldn't be surprised if any kid that I may have has completely different interests, the trick seems to be making sure your kid has the opportunities and exposure to these potential interests, and is able to hone them.

Then again, if a kid really likes videogames, they can pursue it. I have a childhood friend where all she would do was watch bad horror movies and play video games, to the intense concern of her active duty navy father, and now she's made an extremely lucrative career out of video game character design and artwork. To piss off her father, when he bought a shelby gt mustang and wouldn't let her drive it, she bought a top of the line camaro SS, and won't let him drive that.

My friend Gazunk just gave me two tube-filled radios from the 19530s and 50s. Can I send you the tubes to check them?