The Dangerous Solution

What is the best tool for fixing a toilet? What is the best tool for putting a handle on a chest? What is the best tool for repairing a loose ceiling tile? If you answered a sharp knife to all the questions, then you should get yourself checked out at the doctor. Yes, that is Dad's solution.

When he first arrived I wanted him to feel an important and helpful part of the family. I knew that the move was abrupt and the changes in his life made him feel unimportant. So, I gave him a small task, one of the sort that he had done for 50 or more years, a five minute task. Well, an hour later he was working away with a knife to reshape a whole in the side of the chest he was working on to put in a new handle. I had given him all the tools necessary to do the job, but he had sought out a knife to do it "right".

Perhaps I am a slow learner, or perhaps I really do want to make him feel useful, helpful and important, but I gave him another simple job a week later. This is one that he has done many times over the years. I needed a new handle on the toilet. One tool was all that was necessary, a pliers, which I provided. An hour later I found him in the bathroom with a knife cutting away at the plastic nut holding the handle in place.

This week he noticed a loose ceiling tile in his bedroom. He came and said we should fix it right away. The best tool for that job, he said, is a good sharp knife.

What is the solution to the problem. Don't let Dad fix anything around the house. Don't even mention a small project that needs to be done. The problem with that solution?
A. He constantly wants to do things. Right now he wants to rewire his new bathroom.
B. Try guarding every conversation you have around the house and see how wearing it can be.
C. Even letting him help leads to the knife problem and adds 2 to 3 times to the length of any job. That is right when I have 2 to 3 times less time to do things becasue he is here.
D. It reinforces in his mind his own sense of increasing uselessness and creates associated tensions.
E. I now have to deal with D.

There is an upside. Unless he is doing a "project" he doesn't care about knives at all. Oh, the small things that we can be so thankful for.