The ones among you with little kids probably know the problem: wherever you go, the toddler is rarely less than three inches behind you, if not right underneath your feet. That counts for the fridge, bathroom, wall closets and also workshops filled with dangerous equipment like table and band saws, routers, sanders, lots of electricity and pretty much anything in the world you wouldn’t want your child to play with.

When I go to my shop, which is connected to the house, Liam is right there with me: “Daddy what you doing?” “Daddy has to work” I say and close the door between us. Five seconds later I open it again to comfort a loudly crying toddler who was cruelly separated from his beloved parent for “stupid grown-up reasons” like “it’s dangerous”, which of course is totally unreasonable.

So at first I gave him little tours through the shop, making sure that all machines are not only powered off but also unplugged so that there was no way off accidentally starting them. All dangerous and sharp tools were put away out of Liam’s reach and saw blades were retracted or covered where possible. I picked him up to show him the drill press and let him play with some spare toy parts, never taking my eyes off him for a second. He loved it and it was hard to get him back out of the shop but eventually his curiosity was satisfied and I got to work. But soon his appetite for tools got bigger and he wanted to help. So what to do?