Today, August 11, is National Sons and Daughters Day. I’ve played Hot Wheels with my son as soon as he was able, but now he’s aging out of them and getting serious about Pokémon cards. Still, I’ve found ways to bond with him over car-related things like going to shows or building a Tamiya Mini 4WD. One of my favorite road trips was a recent one when the two of us flew one-way to Phoenix to pick up a low-mileage Acura TSX Wagon for a friend and drive it back to LA. We both had a blast and it’s something I’ll never forget and
What’s an automotive bonding activity you can do with kids?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your favorite piece of infrastructure?“.
There were so many great answers last week! streetspirit conjured a rich image of automotive nightlife in a place I’ve never been, The Netherlands, by picking the A15 between Rotterdam and the Maasvlakte. And although I have been to Daikoku Futo many times, Alan‘s description of its spiral ramp was thrilling. Franxou‘s nomination of old school streetlights and their sodium lighting evoked pangs of regret for yet another thing we didn’t fully appreciate until it disappeared. Michael Jue‘s mangled guardrail certainly painted a picture, and Ian G.‘s cone-filled parking lot was a brilliant bit of wordplay.
We also got legit answers that are going on the bucket list. Dave Patten Frankenstein Trestle in Crawford Notch State Park, TheJWT‘s Okuizumi Orochi Loop, and Sebastian Motsch‘s Viaduc de Millau.
We wanted to pick many of the candidates above but, overwhelmingly, one answer was demanded by fellow readers. Well, this week’s winner is Ian N.‘s simple, one-word answer, because the people have spoken:
Roads
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Oh man I’ll be reading this one closely as I’ll be becoming a first time dad come February!
My fondest parental automotive memory is that of doing small maintenance with my dad.
The small achievements and gradually going from tool handing duty to becoming the family mechanic really made me feel ten feet tall!
A friend of mine would let someone not old enough to drive sit in the passenger seat of a manual transmission car, call out what gear to be in, and have the kid shift gears for them.
Why not all the activities? They can sit on your lap and shift and steer while you operate the pedals. Need to bleed that break line? Get the kid to step on the pedal. Show them how to swap to the spare tire, check the oil, the timing, rebuild a carburetor, make a part, or weld something. Go driving to a show, camping, karting, or for a picnic. There’s not a lot you can’t bond over, and kids are WAY more capable of participating than I think the average person of our generation understands. We’ve forgotten something, and have forbidden kids from growing into adults too early, artificially prolonging their childhood.
A youtube channel I discovered recently is MacroMachines, where a high-school aged kid started building a custom boat-tail speedster. He’s welding, machining, and forming nearly every aspect of the car, and the only way he can do that is likely because he has developed those skills from a much earlier age.
A few weeks back I got invited to a local racetrack-sanctioned drift event, and that my friend and his partner were going to drive in it. I asked my son if he wanted to check it out, and before I even finished my sentence he yelled, “YES!” There was possible ride-along activities, but the thought of just checking out cool RWDs and being in the action was keeping him hyped up. He enjoyed hanging out with me and asking questions on the cars; he thought he knew everything about RWD but obviously had so much to learn. He rode in a supercharged BRZ that did continuous figure 8 drifts, and he got to see 3-car tandem drifts, a 240SX hatch followed by 240SX coupe, followed by a Mark II with a 1JZ (he didn’t know there was a 1JZ, only 2JZ.) He saw enough clapped out 350Z and G35 coupes to realize how crappy those cars have gotten, and on the other end of the spectrum saw a blown Corvette melt tires as it drifted UP a steep incline effortlessly. Out in the spectator parking lot he saw a GTR alongside a nice S14, and was asking
Towards the end of the evening we stopped by a ramen joint and indulged in a Restaurant Week price-fixed menu; he was very happy on all aspects.
I just read the QotW more closely. Looks like my response didn’t really answer the question.
I was neck deep in my car repairs back in the late 2000s, when my daughter was around 3-4 yrs old. I called her my special helper and she would help me grab tools, and I would fire off car parts for her to memorize. That was great bonding, but I knew not to dull her with car repairs too much, as it can get boring being under a car for too long.
Similar to ra21benj, now that the kids are older, I have them shifting gears for me when I’m driving. Well, my son at least, as he’s still too young to drive. He’s informed me that I don’t need to gesture him to change gears, as he knows what the shift points are. My daughter is refining stick shift while practicing for her driver’s license, and I’ve taken a “pressure-less” approach where i don’t coerce her to drive longer, since it just ultimately breaks the new driver down. She’s gradually putting all the pieces together, and I can see that she appreciates when she executes a nice clutch engagement with me to feel it.
When my son was just 2 years old, we’d walk down the street together. I would point at cars, telling him the brand. He couldn’t read yet, but he quickly memorized most of them. Soon, it was him proudly pointing at cars and naming the brand without hesitation.
By the time he was 6, we had already started visiting car museums and attending car meets. Over the years, our shared passion has taken us to some of the most iconic car museums in Japan, Germany, and Italy.
Our holidays aren’t just trips — they’re road adventures, covering thousands of kilometers, chasing stories, history, and beauty on four wheels. Each journey is a new chapter in the story we’re writing together as father and son.
Next summer, the road will probably take us to France — and the adventure continues.
Take an awesome road trip where having fun during the journey is the main point.
My family owned a mechanic shop in Delaware that specialized in Euro and exotic cars. My dad would take me with him during the summer and we would travel the up and down the east coast in our family’s shop truck to pick up car parts.
Nowadays I get inspired by the Everyday Driver guys and would love to drive all those fun zig-zag and high elevation roads in Utah with my kid. That would be an awesome bonding moment!