I bought my kid her first multi-tool for her 11th birthday not long ago. She was so excited she used it to open the rest of her presents and it has hardly left her pocket since, (except to go to school). As I sat to reflect about all this talk about preparedness it made me smile to know the effect I am having on my kid and the role it will play as she gets older. By age 9 she could light a fire with a spark tool(in winter) and now we sit often and watch Ray Mears, Survivorman or similar shows together and talk about upcoming camping trips. A while ago we watched the rerun episode of survivorman on OLN where he eats the "unknown mushroom" .she actually knew what it was because I have tried to teach her about bad plants, good plants, animals and so on. With big eyes she looked up at me an said

"wow dad, that was pretty stupid to eat that mushroom wasn't it?"

" Ya, stupid kid, but its just a show. don't do it because he did"

'Oh I wouldn't do that... But that one was safe to eat because its a ......."

"How the hell did you know that?"

"Because you taught me last year while camping"

To tell the truth, I could not even ID the dammed thing at the time but she did. I guess I am getting rusty. The big thing however, is that nothing on earth is cooler than seeing her show interest in that sort of thing without me pressuring her into it. Sure she likes all the normal stuff kids do, but ask her how to sharpen a knife or how to tie a bowline and she can do it quite well.

My point you ask?

Knowledge is USELESS unless you are willing to share it with someone. For those of us with kids it is both a pleasure and a responsibility to share(not force upon) this info.

Now that she has shown the proper attitude and responsibility not just to use, but to own her own blades the next stop will be a brand new shiny rifle. This weekend the training in firearms safety continues, followed soon with a trip to the range to fire her first live rounds.

I thought I would share it here.


A VERY proud Dad.

That is so cool! Congratulations to you for doing such a fine job at parenting.

Jeanette Isabelle

Much kudos! Great job Taurus. The other big thing is that your Mrs. lets you teach your daughter too.

Bravo! Being a dad is a great thing, isn't it?

-Blast

Good job, Taurus.

What kind of multitool did you give her?

Nice Taurus. Kudos for good parenting skills, (1) showing and teaching her; (2) expecting your child to show the "proper attitude and responsibility," and (3) giving her a chance to show she could show the proper attitude and responsibility.

As an opposite to this, I know someone with two daughters and no sons, and a wife who expressed regret that the daughters were never taught anything or showed any interest in some of his stuff, specifically mentioning his firearms. He's fine and active now, but as of yet, that aspect of his life ends with him. Hopefully, they'll be a grandchild and some will be passed on.

I love it when my kids see the merit of some of dad's preparations. None of mine have quite taken preparedness to heart as much as your appears to have done.
Good job !

I(we) are very careful not to push her into our way of thinking. I dont expect that everyone thinks like I do.(most likely a good thing ) We want her to be prepared and street smart, but we dont want her to lose interest. The wife gives me free reign over teaching her stuff so long as it is safe.



Cant imagine anything better my friend. They grow up so fast.....



A Leatherman juice (in blue). I thought it would be a good starter tool for a little girl. Small, pretty color(important for her) and will do any job an 11 year old is likely to come up with.



This was my greatest fear. The wife would get all the dresses, shoes, dancing and stuff and all I was good for was help with beating a level on a video game. We had nothing else much in common interest wise. Around age 8 she saw me in the back yard playing with a blastmatch lighting a fire to see how well it worked before taking it into the woods. She walked over and said "hey dad, that looks like fun, can I try?"

I bet you could see my bright smile from space at that moment.

Since then I teach her stuff every chance I get. Not TOO much to bore her, but enough to keep her interested. I only just realized how much she is starting to turn after her old man. SCARY stuff. She humors me sometimes though I think. She will not eat red meat(her choice, so I wont protest it) but she still wanted me to show her how to skin a deer last season. Even though she did not touch it she was very interested to see how it went.

Thanks for all the kind words folks. I dont know why I posted it but I felt so proud that I had to state it somewhere. Here is as good as anywhere else I figure.

You doing good!!!!

I vaguely remember that episode. Was it a morel mushroom or something else? I remember him trying out various types of foods that were not very tasty or bitter even.

I believe Ron Hood also had an episode "Solo Survival" or something like that we he believed he had a false morel mixed in with his morels. He became violently gastronomically ill for a day or 2 which was a surprise to him as he is well used to figuring out one species from another.

For the most part - unless you are really comfortable with the identification of edible mushrooms play it safe and avoid them.