I watch a fair amount of college basketball. Over the past few years, I’ve heard the TV commentators using the term “glue guy” when referring to certain players. The “glue guy” is a player who exerts leadership and keeps the team playing together through difficult moments. He keeps the team from falling to pieces; he is the glue that holds them together.
Big Man is our family’s glue guy. It’s not because he holds us together when the going gets tough. That would be a tall order for a four-year-old. Big Man is our glue guy because if we find any two random things in our house affixed to each other, it’s a sure bet he’s the one who bound them.
Glue Guy isn’t really even the best description for Big Man, since we don’t let him loose with actual glue, outside of an occasional Elmer’s glue stick. He’s more of a tape guy, or random adhesive strip guy. Sometimes he’s a long piece of ribbon strung between chairs guy.
Of the tape consumed in our household, 12% is used wrapping presents. The other 88% is used by Big Man to stick stuff to other stuff. As one of three boys, Big Man lives in a house of many broken things. When he discovers one of these items, he brings it to me for fixing. If I tell him it is beyond repair, he scoffs. “We can tape it,” he replies as he hurries off toward the utility drawer.
Big Man fixes things with a will. No amount of tape is too much. Sometimes the fixed item resembles a ball of tape more than whatever it used to be, but that’s the price you pay for repairs when you keep the Krazy Glue on the high shelf.
Big Man’s fascination with adhesion is not limited to broken things. Sometimes it’s part of research and development. It’s about making our daily lives easier, like when he ties bathrobe belts across the bottom of the stairs. Aesthetics plays a part too, illustrated by the many decorative things he’s affixed to our living room walls.
When I decide to freshen up the walls, I know where all the painter’s tape is.
As far as I know, nobody ever taught Big Man to tie knots, yet every cord or string that can pass for a rope in a boy’s imagination is tied in hearty knots to two separate things in our house. We’re good to go if we should ever find our house battling rough seas. Everything is lashed down tight.
Old phone cords are the new rope.
You never know what you will find tied or taped together in our home. We can only hope Big Man incorporates more subtlety in his engineering before he grows to reach the top shelf and truly becomes the “glue guy.”
Snoozing on the Sofa 
One never knows when a sudden storm may arise, causing those rough seas to upset the household. Better to be safe than sorry!
We’ll find a way to end up both safe and sorry. We think outside the box like that.
Maybe he’s born to be an engineer or a Dr.?! Plus don’t guys in general tend to think everything is fixable with duct tape? I’m glad to hear that he has you all secure should a sudden well tornado show up. Except…You all may need to be taped to the walls though to keep you all from being swept away don’t you think?!
He’s saving a spot for me on the wall, but he’s waiting until he can get his hands on some Gorilla Glue, or at least an industrial stapler.
Ohhhh a stapler. That’s a whole other level of fun!
He’s already stapled his thumbs together.
Oh no. Ouch!
Awesome. I’d sure like to meet him and I know somewhere there is already a young lady drafting her HoneyDo list for him for when the day comes. The world needs more glue guys!
Whoever marries him had better have a HoneyDon’t list.
Loved this post! I was the Glue Girl in my household as a child, accused at least weekly of “wasting” Mom’s precious scotch tape on my craft projects. There was no better gift at Christmas or birthday time than my very own roll. Except maybe a 3-pack. Lashing things together with makeshift ropes and cords wasn’t my thing. Your house looks like a tripping hazard, full of trip wires. Be careful, Snoozin. And give Big Man some tape love for me. 🙂
We are always stepping over or crawling under his barriers. Maybe we should have left the baby gates up longer for him. Third child has to make his own baby gates.
Super Glue is definitely contraband for a few years to come!
I still glue my fingers together, so I’m not even sure why we have it in the house.
Scott, I’m betting you all can’t wait until he moves into velcro! 😀
With the constant tearing sound, we’d never have to wonder where he is.
As long as your hearing holds out. 😀
It could go any day now.
😀
Yep, been here too. Does he also like to put random objects in bags?
He mostly just tapes them together. He’ll put stuff into backpacks or nice boxes, but he’s too grown for plain bags.