Hardware Stores & Suckers

Before you read this article please know that I do not make the assumption that every person has the desire to be a craftsman. Whether you are a weekend warrior or vocationally speaking you are a professional tradesman, this article will most likely apply to you. Oh, and the small detail is considering whether or not you have kids or some sort of mentoring relationship with the youth. For anybody else, this might just be a way to pass a few minutes of time. But the question at hand is, why take your kids to the hardware store?

Why take your kids to any store? Aren’t we busy enough? I wake up, make coffee, pour some milk for my three year old, Hunter, put his favorite show on or grab him some toys, pour some coffee for my wife, read my bible, and ponder the multitudes tasks on my list for the day. Aside from work, and family, don’t we have enough to do? Take care of the house, take care of extended family, connect with friends, pull in some civic duty, care for the family, and hopefully get some me time. As I know many people struggle with balancing life priorities and time management, wouldn’t it make sense to streamline any small task possible to save your stamina and mental wherewithal for what is really important? Why would I want to make a seemingly easy 40 minute trip to and from the hardware store double or even triple the amount of time just to entertain my three year old son? …Because he will get a sucker.

No joke. Hunter gets a sucker almost every time he goes to the hardware store with me. And it’s not even always the same store. I have three different stores I travel to regularly and they all have an unspoken standard of rewarding children with dum-dums. I was blown away when I realized this. After the third time my Hunter went to a hardware store with me, he figured it out. Whenever he catches wind of, “Daddy..Hardware Store”, he responds with, “sucker”. He’s figured it out. A path to receive a reward with little effort. And now he goes with me to the hardware stores all the time. And it’s all about the sucker, well, in a proverbial way.

As I have pondered, “if time is money, and I am working by going and getting supplies, why take more time by just incorporating my three year old?”. The answer for me is simple, because it is quality time. I have learned as a parent you need to adapt to survive in this world. After about six months of going to the hardware store together I have come to cherish the conversations with Hunter and the teachable moments that frequently arise. Hunter feels so loved just being part of daddy’s world and helping daddy accomplish his work. There is a bit more to it than quality time however, which makes it a bit richer.

Hunter isn’t only getting a good time with his Daddy, and vice versa. Hunter is being exposed to my world and my gifting. God made me a craftsman and with our travels to the store he is seeing business exchanges and becoming familiar with the tools of my trade and the construction community. Hunter is learning how to interact with strangers from both my successes and failures in social queues. Hunter is seeing the behind the scenes benefits of being a craftsman. And I am not excited by this because I have some God persona that I am going to write his destiny and make him the best craftsman ever because he is earning from the age of three and it is, “in his DNA”. No. I am exposing him to what God has wired me for and I will continue to allow him to choose. It is my hopes that one day, when he becomes a man, he will not only have had years of quality time in and out of the workshop with his father, but that he will have a trade skill to fall back on should he ever choose to pursue another vocational path. After all, isn’t a small part of being a good parent allowing kids to make choices, and teaching them through it all?

These are just a few thoughts from me on vocation, and generations with vocations. I do not claim to know much, if anything. This is more of me, thinking out loud and writing it down. I hope it has made you ponder parenting and how to grow in it. God bless.