Doing Demo With My Daughter

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted by the author on her LinkedIn page.

This past weekend, I had an amazing time teaching my 9-year-old daughter the principles of residential electricity. Our family is in the process of remodeling our kitchen and we opted to do all the demolition and some of the prep work ourselves to save on cost. I was nerding out being able to teach my daughter how:

  • Electricity and circuits work along with identifying hot, neutral and ground wires

  • To properly use a multimeter to make sure the power is off and electrical equipment is safe to work on

  • To identify the right breakers to turn them on and off

  • To trace, map, and label circuits (which was “fun” since we had several 3 and 4-way switches in our kitchen)

  • To safely remove/terminate and/or cap wiring

If you get the chance, teach your children the value of learning to do new things, hard things, and how to (safely but confidently) work on projects around the house.

This lets children and young adults feel accomplished, along with the added bonus of increasing their confidence and self-reliance. It will also be a handy life skill when they leave the nest and something breaks in their own house one day. Instead of paying someone else for repairs, maybe they have the empowerment to tackle it themselves. And the wisdom to know when to call a professional.

I also hope that they use their skills and confidence to spread kindness.

What an amazing way to give back to your family and community by lending a helping hand to the elderly neighbor down the street who can’t afford repairs or just being willing to fix something for a friend who’s in a tight spot.

Empower children and young adults to fix and build tangible things that will have positive impacts on their lives and the lives of those around them.

About the Author: Lindsay Swain, P.E., is a water manager at Meta and on the American Society of Civil Engineers Board of Directors.