I must admit, I have never been very handy. If something is hard to take apart or fix, I often times ALWAYS seek my husband’s assistance.
My excuse is that I never had Legos as a child (see this post to understand.) So therefore, the part of my brain that understands how to fix or create something was never developed.
My husband, however, is quite the handy man when he wants to be… or after the 347,795,623 times I’ve asked him! Either way, he can fix, build, design or rig just about anything under the sun.
One of my favorite examples of this was when when my husband was in high school and took his little aluminum boat out fishing early one morning. After an hour long drive, he and his friends got the boat into the water and took off to go fishing only to realize that the boat was taking on water. They had forgotten the boat plug! Since I am afraid of water, this is where I would have started freaking out, but what does my smart thinking hubby do? He stuck a fishing cork in it. Since the cork has a hole in the center and water was still squirting through, he stuck a bird feather in the hole. He said it was the best boat plug he had ever had! I would have called the trip off, but my clever hubs found a fix.
He’s the kind of guy that, when someone says he can’t do something, he says, “watch me!”
He has built everything from huge trailer BBQ pits and birdhouses to deer blinds and a chopper motorcycle. He even has his own patent for something he invented. He is my very own personal McGyver, even if I do have to ask him 347,795,623 times! This one of the many things that attracted me to him.
My kids have taken notice of his skills, too. My 2 year old often tells me, “That’s ok, Daddy can fix it” on anything from a broken toy at home to a broken shopping cart at the store. (And if you’ve pushed around some of the shopping carts at the grocery store, you have an idea about how many times I have heard him say that!)
Some women may take offense to this and say they can fix it too, or go out and teach themselves how to do it, and that is fine. For me, I have no problem letting my husband be the one my boys and I go to for help. Being the mommy, my boys come to me for so much: tummy aches, homework, shoe tying, and comfort when they’re scared in the middle of the night. The list goes on and on. Yes, they do occasionally ask my husband for help with these things, but it is usually me they seek (even if I am in another room and my husband is sitting on the couch next to them! This is something I may never understand!) Either way, I know that my husband and I bring different skills, trades and knowledge to the table from which our boys learn. And as far as fixing, building or designing go, my husband is the man for that job.
I may not know the difference between a box end wrench and an open end wrench (nor do I really want to,) but rest assured my hubby knows and hopefully my sons will sit still (ha!) long enough for daddy to show them, too. Their daddy is a great fountain of knowledge and I pray that they desire to learn as many things as they can from him throughout their lives.
After all, this momma has a big “to do” list and I’m sure my hubs would love some help from them!
Awesome!!! Love this!
Kathie not only was this touching and funny and sweet…it was also So well written! Congratulations!
Kathie, I loved this! You and your husband are yin and yang! I have a very handy husband, too, and I am so very GRATEFUL for him. It takes him two minutes to fix something when it would take me hours trying to research the best way to do it! I loved the way you described the different things you each bring to the parenting journey…it’s really all about finding our strengths and using those to balance the whole experience.
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