Toddlers and Tool Noise

[David Cefai]

I wonder if others have had similar experiences to the following.

My eldest daughter used to cry if she heard a power tool. My workshop was complertely detached from and about 10 yards from the house. This passed when she was about a year old. After that the problem was keeping her out of the shop.

My other 2 daughters were unfazed by any tool noise.

Now my 14 month old grandson (eldest daughter's) if frightened by tool noise in his vicinity. This even holds true for a cordless screwdriver and drill which are the only tools I use if he is around. And yet he will "steal" the screwdriver, run off with it and try to operate it. I have started to remove the bit whenever I put the tool down.

I would be interested to hear if anybody has had similar experiences.

[ray hampton]

I was using a small compressor and left the tank full of air and the great grand son pull the bleeder and ran screaming to his mother

[Mike Cozad]

My experience (drilled into my head by SWMBO) is that kids are accustomed to their environment. She vacuumed while they slept from the first day they came home from the hospital (yes I vacuumed before I picked her and the kids up but it was not good enough... lol). I was told to run my tools around them often. Have never had an issue. The plan may have backfired as they now sleep through alarm clocks. At least until I yell at them to silence the alarm...

[Rich Engelhardt]

The sound of a power tool or anything else that sounds like work just horrifies roughly one third of my & my wife's family.....

Do "kids" in their 30's and 40's qualify as toddlers?

[Rod Sheridan]

Mike, that was our approach as well, let the kids become accustomed to the normal noises in the house.

This included things like the vacuum, and things like the shop tools in the basement......Rod.

[Mike Olson]

I went down the Neander slide for this reason. The only free time I had to use my basement shop was when they were sleeping so I couldn't run any power tools :(

So, i sold it all and now 7 years later, i'm starting to build up my power tools again.

[Alan Bienlein]

We never changed anything when we had our kids. No quiet time for sleeping or any of that nonsense. My kids would fall asleep to the sound of a power tool. It was like music to their ears!

Now if it ever got too quiet that would wake them up in an instant.