Getting Little Girls in the Shop?

Good on your Eric. I will do the same when I have kids. Whether they are a boy or a girl. I will let them decide if they like it or not and not let society tell them they cant like cars because its a 'boy' thing

One of my few close friends is a fella who owns his own shop and lives above it. His 2 youngest are daughters and the things I see them doing around the shop when I'm hanging out with him there are heart-meltingly cute, His youngest is a toddler, barely 3, and he'll set her up with a ratchet and 10mm socket and she will take all the bolts for the headlight or upper radiator support out of some random car in the shop. Then he'll help her lift the part out of the way and let her examine it, then put it back, then she puts all the bolts back in again.

I have to say I think it's great there are so many men represented here willing to empower their daughters. That is so incredible! The world is packed full of interesting things to know and do. Gender is pretty meaningless if you really stop and think about it, regardless of whether you're talking about cakes or clutches. You guys set a great example.

andrewbutton442 wrote: You know, as far as getting little girls in the shop, I think Chip Foose has really broken the glass ceiling with that. Not that her builds are tasteful, but as least she has proven that the shop is not just a mans world anymore, anybody can do it.

Hey, um, not to nit pick or anything....but I'm pretty sure Chip is a dude! Yeah, I'm pretty much positive he's a dude. Yeah. Dude. Yup.

RobinDean wrote:

andrewbutton442 wrote: You know, as far as getting little girls in the shop, I think Chip Foose has really broken the glass ceiling with that. Not that her builds are tasteful, but as least she has proven that the shop is not just a mans world anymore, anybody can do it.

Hey, um, not to nit pick or anything....but I'm pretty sure Chip is a dude! Yeah, I'm pretty much positive he's a dude. Yeah. Dude. Yup.

Unless Chip has had a midlife lifestyle change


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Commodore665 wrote:

RobinDean wrote:

andrewbutton442 wrote: You know, as far as getting little girls in the shop, I think Chip Foose has really broken the glass ceiling with that. Not that her builds are tasteful, but as least she has proven that the shop is not just a mans world anymore, anybody can do it.

Hey, um, not to nit pick or anything....but I'm pretty sure Chip is a dude! Yeah, I'm pretty much positive he's a dude. Yeah. Dude. Yup.

Unless Chip has had a midlife lifestyle change

Well, in my book, the Chipster is free to be as girlie or burly as he likes. Even if he wore cherry licorice undie pants and a bustier, he'd still knock out some pretty slick designs (although one would wonder about the effects he might experience from a variety of distractions in a hot shop environment....)

From the time my kids (2 girls, 1 boy) were little I had them all outside helping. I tried my best ot get them involved in what I was doing and helping with simple tasks. Now that they are teenagers they still come out to the garage and it's special time I get to spend with them.

That's so great - sharing your expertise in whatever field with your kids. I agree that it is special time. I know it was for me and my dad, even though my mom put the kabosh on most of the projects my dad wanted to do with me because she thought I was already too much of a tomboy. I have to wonder what my life would look like today if I'd had the full benefit of my dad's volunteered skoolin'. I've always tinkered - mostly due to my dad saying "if something's broken, you may as well try to fix it because you probably will. And if you can't fix it, it was already busted to begin with so no real harm done". While I know it is possible to really screw something up trying to do your DIY thing, I have to say his advice has saved me a couple hundred thousand dollars over the course of my life. Thanks Pops!!! Then there's Eric - and I have to say his equal in the small engine world is Donyboy73. Both have made huge catalogues of concise, detailed, well edited repair videos.....that make it possible for tinkerers like me to go considerably further than we could have otherwise. What a great service!!

MaxwellF, I'm sure you and your kids have many great memories of those times. You're a great guy for creating them, and doing for them some of what Eric and his ilk have done for so many of us.

I'm going to bump this up because of one of the items in this month's newsletter...


Eric, have you ever considered doing a video series on a project car with your daughter? I think that's the sort of thing that a lot of people would be interested in, informative, cute, but also showing how anyone can be a car person! It's not all just the stereotypical white guys I chat with whenever I'm at the parts store despite what my girlfriend might think. I hate to bandy that term around, but it's the sort of thing that places like buzzfeed would call empowering and such, plus you could do videos on what projects and jobs are great ways to start your kids into the world of working on cars.