We’ve been living in our NYC apartment for 14 years and somehow always find ways to change (and hopefully improve) the layout, but however hard we try we just can’t create any more space. This past week, to mitigate the piles of paper our kids brought home at the end of the school year, we put up a corkboard for each of them and let them select their most prized papers to keep and display. My husband asked them to pass him the nails from his tool closet and they brought him screws instead. This led to a conversation about the difference between them, when each is used, and what tools are required. They were enthralled (and I was horrified) when my husband let them try inserting both nails and screws into their bedroom wall.
In the end, the corkboards went up, I was relieved that the piles of paper had finally found a home, and the kids now have a new appreciation for the difference between a screw and a nail – and perhaps a bit too much confidence with a hammer in hand.
