Awesome example of fathering witnessed in a Lowes/Home Depot:

[lostnfound]

witnessed by my best friend. She was trying to rebuild her garage which is falling down, and determined that she needed a 4x4 for the baseplate. She went to the store (either a Lowe's or Home Depot, not sure which) and loaded it on the cart. As she wheeled it towards checkout, a man with his son -- maybe 10 -- eyed her and quietly said, "that's a bit warped, isn't it?"

She looked at it and said, you know I hadn't even thought about that.

He said, 'If you'd like, my boy can help you pick a better one and help you load it. Those are pretty heavy, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are...thanks! That would be great!" she said.

So the boy follows her to the back again, and carefully pulls out one beam after another, inspecting them and saying "Nope." "Nope." "Nope." Finally he finds one and says "That's the straightest I can find in here." and helps put it on the cart.

They head back towards checkout, and the boy catches up with his dad. My friend says to the man, "He picked out a good one. See?" and the man smiles and says, "Oh, I don't need to look at it. If he says it's good, then I know: it's good."


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What a lot of lessons this man taught his son. I suspect that there's a whole lot of parenting (or "unparenting") that went into that moment.

[wildeyed]

1. A whole lot of effort to get to that moment.

:applause:

Also, I am glad to hear someone notice a positive example of parenting. Seems like most of the time, us parents get criticism for any fault in our parenting, real or perceived, but zero credit when things go right. Nice that your friend is able to see the positive, not just harp on the bad stuff :thumbsup:

[lostnfound]

2. I was amazed at how clearly the man had confidence in his son

as well as reinforcing the value of being of service to others.