Was a phone call.
A friend of mine is a single parent (as was I for many years) and she doesn't have a lot of luck with men, health or whatever. She does have a bright engaging ten year old boy.
A couple of weeks ago I was bored and sifting through the eBay items closing in minutes when I came across a single Robbie Williams ticket. This was a Gold ticket usually going for about $170 and it was closing with no bids for $50. I jumped in, sniped it and got it for the $50. I then called my friend and asked her if she'd like to go. She jumped at the chance and we said we'd look after her boy while she was at the gig. I had an ulterior motive, as when she left to see the concert the boy and I disappeared into my workshop and I told him we were going to make Mum's present, or more exactly HE was going to make it.
I'd bought a piece of 40mm pine and told him of the plan to make two breadboards. Why two? I would make the first step on mine then he would copy it on his. We then did the safety briefing. I showed him exactly what damage the equipment would suffer if they had the chance cut his arm off - none.I got the face mask and the ear protection on him and we were set. He cut the board to size on the tablesaw, chose a router bit, routed a design around the edge, rough sanded and then fine sanded the board top and bottom. We then heated it in the oven and coated it with olive oil. Each step I did first and then I hovered over him to make sure he was as safe as I could make him.as he did it himself.
The phone call came today with Mum ecstatic over the first functional gift he had made himself and him as proud as he could be. One of his other gifts was a keyboard and when he saw it he tried to guess what it was inside the wrapping and jumped with joy at the thought that it might be woodworking equipment like I have.
I think he has the bug. He has already told me about Mum's birthday in May.
Mekon