Yeah, it’s kind of frustrating, but I guess I’m the cool dad for letting my kids do strange experiments. For example, my kid had some oil and water in a bottle for a couple months on their desk and really liked shaking it up and seeing it separate, and they did another where they took two 2-liter bottles and connected them to make “water tornadoes” or whatever. We also built a crappy game w/ Scratch once.
The tricky part is spending roughly equal time with each. My oldest really likes doing experiments and building stuff (which I’m totally down for), the second is more into creativity and making up games (I struggle here), and the last is into playing pretend and dress-up (I’m really not equipped for that). So what ends up happening is we don’t do much of those things and instead do things all together, like going to a local museum, the playground, or playing video games together. But I try to set aside some time for each of those interests.
I am excited for maybe doing a large project with all of them. I want to build a treehouse, which should appeal to each of them. The oldest can help design it and cut the pieces (I have a table saw), the oldest two can help nail things, the second can help decorate, and the third can RP as a construction worker, helping me with tools and whatnot. It should be a lot of fun, just waiting approval from the SO, budget (we need to buy a new car soon), and time (would probably need to take a few days off to get it done).
You are a really fucking cool dad for even wanting to build a tree house with your kids, good on you. Literally my best memories are with my dad building cool shit like tree houses, which eventually snowballed into me having a million random skills and the two of us building actual houses together. Even if you can’t build something as complex as a treehouse right now, it’s the participating and engaging with your kids’ lives that really matters. They will remember you as the dad that showed up
I hope so. My main roadblock right now is getting my SO on board. I have a habit of half-finishing things, so I’ll need to clean up that list before they’ll sign off.
Yeah, it’s kind of frustrating, but I guess I’m the cool dad for letting my kids do strange experiments. For example, my kid had some oil and water in a bottle for a couple months on their desk and really liked shaking it up and seeing it separate, and they did another where they took two 2-liter bottles and connected them to make “water tornadoes” or whatever. We also built a crappy game w/ Scratch once.
The tricky part is spending roughly equal time with each. My oldest really likes doing experiments and building stuff (which I’m totally down for), the second is more into creativity and making up games (I struggle here), and the last is into playing pretend and dress-up (I’m really not equipped for that). So what ends up happening is we don’t do much of those things and instead do things all together, like going to a local museum, the playground, or playing video games together. But I try to set aside some time for each of those interests.
I am excited for maybe doing a large project with all of them. I want to build a treehouse, which should appeal to each of them. The oldest can help design it and cut the pieces (I have a table saw), the oldest two can help nail things, the second can help decorate, and the third can RP as a construction worker, helping me with tools and whatnot. It should be a lot of fun, just waiting approval from the SO, budget (we need to buy a new car soon), and time (would probably need to take a few days off to get it done).
You are a really fucking cool dad for even wanting to build a tree house with your kids, good on you. Literally my best memories are with my dad building cool shit like tree houses, which eventually snowballed into me having a million random skills and the two of us building actual houses together. Even if you can’t build something as complex as a treehouse right now, it’s the participating and engaging with your kids’ lives that really matters. They will remember you as the dad that showed up
I hope so. My main roadblock right now is getting my SO on board. I have a habit of half-finishing things, so I’ll need to clean up that list before they’ll sign off.