Odd dad skillz

My wife is arguably better than I am at tetris-style packing of the car (or the hall closet, or the basement, or the suitcase…).

My skill is taking a hard look and saying, “We don’t need half of this shit. We’ll have less stress without it.”

I do the car packing as well but I definitely drop the above quote multiple times as the wife and kids keep bringing crap out. Hell we went out of town for one night, granted it included a Packers game, and the amount of junk we had loaded was asinine. But that’s what you get I guess with 3 women in the house.

I would say my dad/man skill is knowing when to shut my mouth and let my wife figure this type of thing out on her own :slight_smile: .

We have a Mazda cx-90. It’s technically a 7 seater but when the back two seats are being used the cargo space is next to nothing. You can’t even fit one full sized suitcase in the back.

A few months ago my wife and her sister were taking a trip with both sets of kids to their parents place around 6 hours away. They decided to take one car, ours, to save on the ferry cost off the island.

I immediately said it’ll never work, you will have no room for luggage. She started to argue and I put my hands up and said “you know what, you’re right sweetie, I shouldn’t have been so quick to criticize your idea, I’m sure you and your sis will figure it out just fine”.

Travel day came, it’s pissing rain and my brother in law and I are inside watching our wives trying to Tetris an impossibly large amount of luggage in to that car and it’s just not happening. I mentioned to my brother in law if we should go help and he said “hell no, I tried to tell her it would never work and got an earful for it!”

“The more you know, the less you need” - Yvon Chouinard

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I can split any food stuff into two portions of equal weight within 2% by eye. Example, cutting the last piece of pie into two pieces. We use the kitchen scale to confirm and my record is astounding, even to me.

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An ear of corn. A full rack of ribs.

Perhaps not with you, but when the last slice is split to be shared, we have a rule in our house that one person cuts and the other gets to choose.

The chooser usually has an advantage.

It cut out lots of arguing by our kids too.

We had the same rule when I was a kid. “You split, I choose” was the name. No doubt this was instrumental in honing my skills. Great rule for families, teaches accountability and fairness. No squabbles permitted.

Same here on car packing. I make it fit. They bring everything they should never need.

Along those lines, why can my wife pack all she needs in 1 carry-on suitcase when we get on a plane, but if driving, she need to bring enough stuff to fill the entire bed of my truck…..

Tell her your next road trip is in a Smart car… :rofl:

Sorry

And it would be really “smaht” is they had that kind of tech built into one of these things. And it would be quite appropriate for some of Boston’s narrow streets…

Saw one with a license plate that said “HALF CAR”

I do that, but I get fly guts on my hands because I’m not risking them getting away.

She would laugh at me as she knows I would not buy/drive that……

It’s the same for backpacking vs car camping.

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That scheme dates back to the dawn of civilization. The maths is fun:

To be fair I do the same thing. “Welllll, I may need that, so may as well bring it…. 100 times”

“The more you know, the less you need” - Yvon Chouinard


Regardless of how much or how little is packed, even WITH GPS, you’d better be able to read a map, just in case

‘Hmmm, she should’ve told me to turn by now ..’
At the next light…
‘There we go, thank you’

Call me Jon Snow then cause I dont know shit.

On the other point, I am a GPS antagonist. I posit I could go to any major city in the country without GPS or a Map.