Teaching My Daughters - How to Jump start a car - March 2014

This is one that I forget all the time, so having a way to remind my girls is helpful for all of us. Especially if my daughters have me, 'forgetful' memory. Lock my keys in the car? Yep. Leave the lights on? Oh yes. Have the radio on while I have my phone plugged in and playing on my laptop while sitting in the car awaiting practice to end? I am doing it now.

(From The Art of Manliness: How to Jump Start a Car)

Check out other "Teaching My Daughters"

• How to use a screwdriver
• How to drive on slick roads

(This meme was created by Suzanne Bastien (me), because I want my children to be taught everything they need to make it in this world. Even if they only use it once.)

Teaching my Daughters - How to drive on slick roads - February 2014

We all learn different things at different times and for different reasons, so my parents not teaching me how to drive in the snow is NOT against them. I grew up in a beautiful, small part of the DFW metroplex in Texas, called Arlington. We didn't have ice and if we did, we sure as heck didn't drive in it! Who does that?

Fast forward 20-ish years and here I am, one of *those* people that drive in snow/ice, etc. I live in the breathtaking state of Colorado! We get a bit of ice and snow every year, surely more than Texas does. The way I learned how to drive in it was through A LOT of trial and error. Sliding, slipping, praying that we don't die.

After having 3 children that I have attempted to teach to drive, I have learned something about myself. I SUCK at teaching kids how to drive. Someone else needs to do it. My kids reallllllly dislike getting behind the wheel of a car with me, none the less me in the passenger seat badgering them. So.... My daughters will learn to drive by my loving husband, who taught my 19 year old son how to drive in the ice, and he does VERY well without me poking them to drive "my" way.

Hey.. I know my limitations. Need tips on how to teach your kid how to drive in the ice. Check it out here at Art Of Manliness!!

Illustration by: Ted Slampyak

(This meme was created by Suzanne Bastien (me), because I want my children to be taught everything they need to make it in this world. Even if they only use it once.)

Teaching My Daughters - How to use a screwdriver- January 2014

I don't feel like I'm a bra burning, screaming angry feminist, however, many people see me that way because of how vocal I am with wanting my daughters to learn the same things as my sons.

When I was a single mom, I did all the repairs in the house. When doors wore out, I learned to chisel out the wood to create new notches for door hinges to rest in, I learned how to fix a toilet when the chain came off the flushing mechanism and I learned how to install a hard drive and/or memory into a desktop.

How did I learn those things? Some of them were trial and error, some were TV shows and some were watching other people do it. Why? Because I didn't know anyone else who could/would do it and it gave me a sense of accomplishment to do them on my own.

Now, there are still certain things I have no idea how to do. Mowing a lawn, trimming trees and much to my husbands dismay, use a power washer properly. However, I have confidence that if anyone else can do it, so can I.

So... while I was on the website: The Art of Manliness, I came across an article about, "Toolmanship: How to use a screwdriver" and learned more about screwdrivers than I knew in my years of using them. *THIS* is something I want to teach my daughters! I want them to go into the world knowing all these things that will one day help them. Even if their significant other doesn't know it, at least they will.

That being said... here are few more articles from The Art of Manliness I want to teach my daughters.

Toolmanship: Wrenches
Toolmanship: Handsaw 
Toolmanship: Hammer


(This meme was created by Suzanne Bastien (me), because I want my children to be taught everything they need to make it in this world. Even if they only use it once.)