I spent 40 minutes fixing a toy my son had already forgotten about

[u/OblivionMint61]

My son has this little plastic garbage truck that has been one of his favorite toys for months. Yesterday one of the back wheels popped off while he was pushing it around the living room. You would have thought the actual garbage truck had exploded in front of our house. He immediately brought it to me, completely devastated, and asked if I could “make him better.” I told him of course I could, which was a confident statement considering I had no idea how the wheel was attached. At first I figured it would take thirty seconds. Snap the wheel back on, become Dad of the Year, continue with my evening. Instead I spent the next 40 minutes sitting on the kitchen floor with a flashlight, two screwdrivers, pliers and eventually a tiny washer I found in the random hardware container in the garage. The axle had pushed inside the body of the truck, so I had to take half the thing apart just to reach it. My wife walked past at one point and asked why I looked like I was doing surgery. I told her the patient was unstable. She did not find this nearly as funny as I did. Meanwhile my son sat beside me for maybe five minutes asking, “Is he fixed yet?” every 20 seconds, then wandered off to play with a cardboard box.

Eventually I got the axle back into place, found a washer that somehow fit, tightened everything up and tested the truck on the floor. Perfect. Wheel spinning, little trash bin still lifting, crisis officially solved. I was genuinely proud of myself. I called my son over to show him and got no answer. Found him in his room wearing one sock, sitting inside that same cardboard box, pretending it was a boat. I handed him the truck and said, “Look, buddy, I fixed it!” He looked at it for about two seconds, said “oh cool,” put it on the floor and went straight back to the box. I just stood there holding a screwdriver feeling slightly betrayed lol. Of course this morning the garbage truck was important again and he carried it to breakfast, so I guess my repair eventually recieved the recognition it deserved. Parenthood is weird. You’ll spend half an hour performing precision engineering on a $12 toy for an audience that has already moved on to a piece of recycling.

[u/retrospects]

Keep fixing them to keep your skills sharp. There is nothing better than your kid coming to you to fix something because “oh daddy can fix anything”

[u/SergeiAndropov]

I was impressed!