For a couple of months now I have been spending my evenings building my home shop and it has been rewarding to me that my 1-1/2 year old daughter is excited to hang out with me as I work on the shop.

Mostly she likes to just sweep up – which in actuality is usually just her dragging a broom behind her – but I’ll take whatever help I can get when it comes to sweeping. After a good sweep, she’s usually ready for a roll around the shop in one of my two repurposed office chairs on casters. Usually just the oval track around the tables saw and bench but on occasion I will sit in the other chair and we play bumper cars. Lastly before mommy comes and gets her for bath time I turn up the shop radio so she can dance on my workbench.

The photos show one night when she stopped dancing mid-song to point out a piece of my bench that had broken off. Not only did she recognize where the piece should go, she instinctually knew what tool to use to fix it. “Uh-oh boom-boom, dada!.” she said pointing at the piece. Having not recognized her using the words “boom-boom” before I asked her what she meant. She pointed to the piece of wood then pointed to the corner where the missing piece left a notch in the bench top. “Yeah, daddy’s bench is broken isn’t it?” I told her “that’s okay”. “No, boom-boom dada” she said, now standing up and pointing to the hammer rack on the back wall. 

I was elated. My daughter knew exactly what the hammers on the wall were used for. So, I enthusiastically grabbed a couple of smaller hammers off the wall, and some blocks of wood for her to pound together. 

My baby daughter is a natural carpenter and daddy couldn’t be more proud.