My kid has had a long day...

Took the day to bottle a batch of beer, and then proceeded to brew a new batch. My 2.5 year old has had cabin fever all day, and was trying to mess with everything from the brew in the fermenter, to the bottling bucket, the newly bottled beers,s to the fermenter and bottling bucket cleaning, to the brew pot cooling....Of course he was told to watch out because he was going to spill it.

He went to bed tonight, and awoke with blood curdling crying. My wife ran in and asked him what was wrong. With tears pouring down his cheeks he said "I spilled daddy's beer". Took him 20 minutes and lots of hugs to fall back asleep.

Oh man! Thanks for the post, my 21 month old loves getting into my brew stuff too. Sounds like my warnings need to be changed up a bit throughout the brew day!

i have twin 5 year old boys that love to help out when im brewing but i wont let them with the boiling wort and when it comes time for bottling they could careless

I have a two year old and haven't begin brewing yet but I can easily envision this. I'm going to have a hell of a time keeping him inside while dad's "cooking" outside.

my 3 year old grandson loves to help. His favorite thing is being elbow deep in starsan lol

My four year old is fascinated by my beer. Since he was two he could name all of the "bad bugs"; lacto, pedio etc... That being a function of he once tried to stick is hand in a fermenter, ad I told him if he did the "bad bugs" would get my beer.

I just always make sure to give him a job no matter what I'm doing. He helps mill grain, throw in hops, and put caps on bottles. Keeps him busy and not feel left out, but also keeps him out of the stuff that could ruin a batch. It also keeps the wife happy and so I get to make more beer.

I think letting the kids help is great. Because of this mine has a pretty big fascination with science. He understands that enzymes convert starch to sugars, that fermentation is yeast converting sugar into alcohol and CO2, and that acetobacter turns alcohol into vinegar.

I have a 4 year old that is the official capper. I keg most of my creations so he has the job of bottling the 6-12 per batch I age or give to friends. The Local Brew Supply store keeps a box of toys for the kids. My 2 year old sometime asks if he can go to the beer store to play toys.

awwww.

I have a 20-month old who loves being outside. He gets to play while I get to brew. This weekend was the first time he helped by handing the mash paddle, throwing in the hops and little stuff like that.

I have an 8 yr old and a 6 yr old that like to go with me to the brew store to "try" all of the grains. I have found myself telling the to stop eating the grains on more than one occasion.

Mjolnir said:

and when it comes time for bottling they could careless

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Even some of us feel the same way. Man do I need to get this kegging thing up and running.

my boy always wants to help shake the prechiller!

agdoc04 said:

He went to bed tonight, and awoke with blood curdling crying. My wife ran in and asked him what was wrong. With tears pouring down his cheeks he said "I spilled daddy's beer". Took him 20 minutes and lots of hugs to fall back asleep.

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Ayup.

It is all too easy to forget the impact our tone of voice can have on such eager to please ears, especially when we are inundated by tasks that we have little time for since becoming otherwise responsible to teach and protect.

Both of my children refer to beer, and tobacco products as "medicine" since we have made a point to instill in them that while some medicine can be good for you but if not treated respectfully they can all be very bad for you.

I had a similar situation with my 6 year old last night, though not beer related. It's great to have a kid that actually cares about feelings and the truth. Shows, to me atleast, we're doing something right.
Tom