Ideas for kids, Father’s Day swearing, and a conference call-out

Dad, being a resourceful kind of chap, had made the pegs by hacksawing a length of metal pipe into pieces. The saw had left the edges all rough and ragged, and he was banging them into the garden with sharp whacks from a hammer. The outcome was pretty much inevitable…

Whumpf!

The next thing I know, Dad’s walking up to the house with one hand clenched tightly over his thumb, which he’s almost cut off by smacking it with the hammer over the rough-sawn edge of the pipe. His lips are pressed firmly together and he’s quite white, yet the single word he says comes out in a quiet, almost polite tone – which was ironic, because in my eight-year-old universe it was the least polite word you could say.

With Father’s Day coming up I caught myself thinking about that hammer episode, and whether I’d be as staunch myself. The short answer is ‘no’. No, I would have hollered like a little baby – but that’s alright. I’m sure I bring other qualities to this fatherhood gig.

For me, fatherhood is mostly something I make up as I go along – and that’s half the fun of it.

With our beautiful kids Birdie and Zoë now two and two months' old respectively life at home is all about making up games, making up stories, and coming up with distractions that don’t involve buying rubbish we don’t need – which I thought would be a neat feature for the next Green Ideas magazine.

So tell me about your ‘sustainable play’ ideas for keeping the kids or grandkids amused (email them to [email protected] with any pictures you might have, and we’ll include a selection in the magazine). At our place, for instance, we’ve been making this stuff: cheap and easy homemade finger paint (click here for the recipe).

Perhaps a dab of red paint on my thumb would be a good trick this Father’s Day. It might fool the kids into thinking I’m as tough an old coot as their Granddad….

Greg Roughan
Editor, Green Ideas magazine

PS: A week and a half after Father’s Day I’m off to an event some of you might be keen on. A group of far-thinking sustainability experts are gathering in Auckland to nut out what the future of greener business looks like in New Zealand. I’m particularly excited about hearing from Dr Sudhvir Singh of Generation Zero, and meeting Loomio co-founder Vivien Maidaborn. Tickets are fairly pricy, so it’s probably something for those involved in taking larger businesses in a greener direction. Still, it’ll be exciting stuff – and great for our country. Click here for details.

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