Martha Washington
One of my peeves of scouting is the pinewood derby. I have no problems with the competitive nature, the idea that only certain boys win, in fact, I like that better than the idea that EVERYONE gets an award, flooding out any meaning in achievement. However, I am completely annoyed by the parents (I can't even say dads, this is the first year out of our nearly seven years of scouting that I've come across a mom who did this) who take OVER their child's car because they can't do it "good enough". The parents take this block of wood, cut out a cool shape, sand it smooth, paint it over, finely sand the wheels, attach and lube, and don't forget, weight it down to within 1/10th of an ounce of the limit. There is even a website, telling you HOW TO WIN....and need I remind you that the pinewood derby is for boys under ten??? Very rarely do the boys have a choice. I've heard parents legitimize this, by excusing it "I was going to let him do the next step, but he was doing it wrong", by excusing the child "He wanted it to look a certain way, and just couldn't do it"or by excusing the process "He really needed to win to feel good about this".
Anyway, out of all this, came Sam. He did his car himself. He did not lose a finger, and used the handsaw himself. He spent nearly an hour sanding it smooth. He painted it all by himself, and then rubbed on his little stickers....unevenly it's true. But when he was done, he had a car he was PROUD of...he had a splinter in one hand, a raw spot on the other from sanding, and a huge sense of accomplishment. It did not matter in the slightest that he did not win, because he had so many great memories of me sitting beside him, and him explaining his process to me. He was a wonderful sport, cheering all the cars, congratulating the winners, and came home beaming. That's the definition of a real man. We've got the good beginnings of one in him.
3 comments:
You're so awesome. So's your son.
Cool car, Sam! I have some of the same pinewood derby peeves, Melissa. Andrew always designed and decorated his own car--you can certainly tell most don't--and wouldn't ya know he won best looking last year!! Beat out lots of talented engineer dads ya know.
I remember when Will made a pinewood derby car (some 14 yrs ago). Gary gave only technical advice -- how to use the sandpaper, principles of weight distribution, etc -- and Will loved his car.
He lost the race, but since only about half the cars that night appeared Dad-made, he wasn't terribly upset by it. No one he knew well won, either, so no big.
It's so sad, tho, to see the boys runing cars that were obviously made/designed entirely by Dad.
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