Tuesday
Dec252007
10 Hours.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 Yes. 10 hours. First thing he said after I popped the last Lego piece into place?
"Play with me!"
Labor laws don't apply to dads...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 
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BusyDad (Jim)
Working dad doing his darndest
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9-year-old boy and future revolutionary
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Reader Comments (26)
10 HOURS! DUDE! Benny got the Underwater Sea Patrol Bionicle and made his Papa work hard, too! LOL Gotta love this age.
On to the new year... :D
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[BusyDad] Yup... I've got one more Lego set of that magnitude left, and also a Bionicle on deck. Thank goodness I have to go to work! hahaha
Hahahahahahaha....I bet you were ready to play, play, play! LOL
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[BusyDad] Actually I was looking forward to anything to give my fingers a rest. Putting Legos together really rubs your fingertips raw. It hurts to type right now!
Wow, 10 hours doing it alone or with Fury? Looks like you need an extra energy boost to keep up with your little Fury.
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[BusyDad] This was just me. It's one of those Lego sets that's for age 12 and up, so it was too complicated for him. But of course, he loves the finished product, so what could I do?
LMFAO.. I swear.. I feel for you, but it is soo true. After spending 3 hours taking all the darn twist tags off the toys to get them out of their packages.. my son wanted me to play. I told him I will once my fingerprints grow back..LOL
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[BusyDad] Oh I HATE those things!! Between those and Legos, my fingertips are paying the price today. Those twisty ties are like a race against time too. The whole time your kid's going "come on Dad! I wanna play with it now!"
PS.. That is a kick ass thingy you built too!
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[BusyDad] Thank you! It's a Lego Star Wars Sandcrawler. Everyone, please admire the product of my toil to the fullest.
This is why I'm so glad that my boys just assume that mom has no idea how to put together legos/robots/various "will be broken in an hour" things... He gets those ten hour stints; I get to point and laugh. :) Hope you guys had a great Christmas!
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[BusyDad] That's a smart technique. I set a dangerous precedent by building his Lego V-Wing fighter (mostly because I wanted to play with it. Stupid me.) a few years back. That took 15 minutes. He's since graduated to bigger and better sets (woe is me). About 10 minutes after I built this thing, I heard a huge crash and I had a heart attack. Luckily he spilled his action figure crate and not this 10-hour masterpiece of toy engineering.
So, I have to ask. How long did it stay together? We stopped with the Lego sets/race car tracks/train track sets because my kids LOVE the finished product, but not the building process. They destroy the castles, ships, spaceships in MINUTES - and not by being TOO rough. We just don't find they stand up to the "play with me" that comes after building! When they get a little older, we say (4 and 6 now)
KEEP BELIEVING
btw, Love Fury's table etiquette- taking plate to the sink. My boys are freaking out becauase Santa left a few crumbs and didn't finish his milk.
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[BusyDad] So far, it's still in one piece as of 10 am PST. This has actually been at the core of an internal conflict for me. Fury takes everything apart that I build, especially Legos and Bionicles. BUT, the creations he makes after he takes them apart is nothing short of amazing. He's very engineer-minded. So, I have this rule of thumb: if it's a big toy that took me more than 2 hours to build, it sits on a high shelf. He has to ask me if he wants to play with it. Then, I take it down, remind him it took me x hours to build, and not to take it apart (which actually works!). He'll tinkle with it (Dad, I'm modifying it!), but won't rip it apart. When he's done, it goes back on the shelf. The Lego Star Destroyer and Jabba the Hutt Sail Barge have lasted one year (with only a few repair sessions by dad) so far with this system. With smaller sets, I let him do whatever he wants. What he ends up with is usually cooler anyway.
Haha - Santa's not setting a very good example by leaving crumbs around!
hey! where's the tai fighter???
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[BusyDad] It's in the queue! A very long queue that includes one more 10-hour Lego monstrosity, 2 other smaller 30-min lego vehicles and one Bionicle.
You are the Lego King, my friend.
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[BusyDad] How about LegoPimp. I think that has a nice ring to it.
Yo! That is some intensive lego labor, way to go. I bet you even played with him...cause BusyDad goes the extra mile! You are so kickass dad :)
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[BusyDad] I did! Luckily, he took it easy. No battles (and ensuing lego damage, which he always blames on "missles" rather than his own doing). We played Sandcrawler Vacation, which meant all the droids and figures rode the sandcrawler to the beach and my job was to assign them all hotel rooms. Even intergalactic marauders need to chill from time to time.
10 hours?!! Now I understand why my son's friend doesn't invite him over anymore. Last time he was there, he took apart the boy's Star Wars Legos. I didn't realize they probably took 10 hours to put together! We owe that kid (and his Dad) a HUGE apology!
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[BusyDad] 7:30a to 7:30p with a lunchbreak in between. Granted, some sets only take 20 minutes or so for a talented Lego technician like myself, but a shattered lego set still hurts. I feel for your friends. If you make it up to them, whatever you do, DO NOT get them more legos (at least for the poor dad's sake)!
Oh my gosh you are a MUCH better parent than I am! I "timed out" on a game of Chutes & Ladders with Joshua today after 30 minutes!
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[BusyDad] Well, I gotta admit, building legos has a zen-like appeal for me. But 10 hours? Yeah, that bordered on insanity. I'm no better than any other parent. Just crazier...
10 hours. Wow. Can you still feel your fingers? You have soooo much more patience and attention span than I do! I might have lasted 10 minutes. Maybe.
But it looks super cool!
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[BusyDad] Thanks! The end result actually turned out cooler than I thought. Yes, I can still feel my fingers. Unfortunately they feel like they're burnt. This boy's just lucky that his dad is a mega Star Wars fan and could empathize with how cool it would be to play with this toy once it was done.
Put together a princess vanity table and then come talk to me.
Merry Christmas.
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[BusyDad] Luckily that one's not in the cards for me. At least mine had guns and treads and things.
10 hours? Wow...now that's so patient. I'd last maybe 1! Mine got his first drum set and he's been bangin' on them every spare minute!!
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[BusyDad] Your neighbors - I hope they're patient.
Um, wow....10 hours. You deserve some sort of award, methinks.
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[BusyDad] The CrazyDad award?
Awh, what a good dad!! That is one heck of a creation...looks pretty cool.
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[BusyDad] Thanks! Yeah, I'm milking the compliments on that behemoth of a Lego project to get some ROI on my 10 hours ;)
Hey I put together a Princess Vanity table too. And a Princess Bike (well, husband actually spent 4 hours on that, but I helped put the pedals on!) I'm totally impressed with the lego machine you built. Clearly, you need your own set of legos.
By the way, I finally did my meme, thankyouverymuch. ;) Hope you had a great Christmas!
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[BusyDad] No! No more legos... please! Cool about the meme! That was quick, considering you just did the 100 things list. Thanks for digging up another 7 for me!
Nice work! We discovered that, once built, they are impossible to play with without the pieces falling apart.
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[BusyDad] They ARE impossible to play with. That's why I'm like a referee whenever he plays with these bigger 10-hour jobs. "Ease up Fury! Too much torque on the door!" "Watch the wing!" "You're too close to the edge of the table!"...
I helped my 14yo clean his room over his school break and took a ton of Legos out of his closet. If I never see another little plastic brick... enjoy while you can.
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[BusyDad] You mean to tell me you don't miss stepping on those sharp-edged little buggers in the middle of the night?
You have a GREAT amount of patience. I would have given up after say..... 4 hours... LOL
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[BusyDad] I also don't have a houseful of kids of all ages vying for my attention either. I'm sure that would wear me down quickly.
You are now qualified for DadGod status. Amazing.
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[BusyDad] Thanks for the vote! I thought this put me in the running for PoorSapDad myself.
WOW that's amazing . .I will have to show it to hubby. He and my oldest love to make things with Legos. There last creation. . a crane with real cables and a pulley system made out of my sewing thread!
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[BusyDad] That's really cool. Right now, Marcus is at the stage where he'll totally modify the Legos I build for him (I still build it stock). I'm sure totally original Lego projects are just around the corner. I wish they still sold generic "Lego" sets that didn't build anything in particular, like the good old days.
LOL! Dude, I was talking to my wife on Christmas Eve as I sized up that pirate ship and castle you saw and I told her as I looked over directions, "Give me half an hour" in my manliest voice. About an hour into the abomination my legs started to cramp and twitch. After about two hours I was laying on the floor reading the directions the way a flounder would. I labored to find pieces and cursed my very existence. Two and half hours in my wife dared to say, "I thought you said half and hour?" I huffed and plodded on nearing completion. The last block fell into place about 2 hours and 45 minutes after starting. I was a shell of man, mad at his wife and in serious need of that whiskey you said you would drink less of. I can not imagine, and will not for that matter, 10 hours...you my man are a sadist. :)
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[BusyDad] I feel your pain, Joe, I so do. And I laughed because I can. I learned my "1/2" hour lesson about a year and a half ago. I started this lego project instead of going out to buy garlic or something like that, pointing out that it would only take a few minutes. It ended up taking a long ass time and I ended up not getting garlic, which led to a 2-day spousal stalemate. "Underpromise, overdeliver" - works for business, and legos. I told Fury this was a "3-day project."
Well. This right here is the reason we have neither puzzles nor legos on our house. I am sure I am raising them all to be uncultured children who have no hand-eye coordination, blah blah blah, but I get too tired of stpping on legos or finding puzzle pieces in my shoe. I rellay just like to give them a stick, some string, and tell them to NOT kill the cat. :)
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[BusyDad] Sticks and string can make a killer weapon! Cool! Thanks for reminding me of my glorious childhood.
Oh I hate Lego for that EXACT reason!
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[BusyDad] I do too. But I keep forgetting.