re: What is the most valuable skill your old man taught you?

My Dad told me over and over again “ Don’t sweat the small stuff “. I’m afraid the message never fully sank in. But I hear it in my head daily.

He could fix anything, cars, boats, carpentry etc and was always busy doing something for himself or others. Best inshore salt water fisherman I’ve ever seen could catch in any conditions.

Primarily, his work ethic through good times and bad. Died in1998 still miss him.

How to back up trailers, how to launch and put the boat back on the trailer by myself, how to properly trim a outboard motor, etc...

Troubleshooting.

Any time I'd have a problem of some kind, instead of just fixing it, he'd walk me through the process and make me think about how things were "supposed" to work, and help me determine why they weren't. Then we'd discuss how we can fix the issue, and finally do so.

I'm an engineer now, so this skill has served me well in my career.

Basic AC work.

If you say your gonna do something, by god do it!

Just sitting here thinking about it the only thing my dad ever taught me was how to clean fish. Every valuable skill I have was taught to me by my grandfather ,grandmother , and my brothers.

Saving money, gardening.

I feel like most of the valuable things that I learned from my dad manifested themselves after I was about 24 or so. He was kind of a stoic hard arse, worked like a fricking mule, and I was a mamma's boy, and was kind of lazy as a kid.

And when I got to junior high, I was more interested in counter-culture, and had a social personality.

We didn't clash too hard most of time, but him being who he was, we were just not similar as far as father and son goes.

So I resented him when he would make me work, not let me get my way, or get pissed at me when I displayed a lack of effort in sports, school, etc. I feared him.

But now that I am older, I understand why he tried to teach me the things that he did. Subconscious and vague as they were when I was younger, I now have a lot of the same values, and ethics that he tried to instill, and I appreciate it greatly in retrospect.

I really don't know who/where I'd be as an adult without him raising me. He's much more chill, and laid back now, and we have good times together drinkin, fishin, and shootin the shite. Still works like a sumbitch though.

quote:

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Not to abandon your wife and kids at a young age. Which my biological father did to me

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Loved my dad, but I promised myself I was going to be a better father than he was.