Short-Changing My Kids...One Piece of Pinewood at a Time

I just got to wondering. This is a purely hypothetical situation, so I'm just curious. Let's just say that like 5 weeks ago, my cub scout comes home from pack meeting with a Pinewood Derby car kit. I think (hypothetically, of course) "Man, 5 weeks is a long time!" and do nothing about the car. About a week ago, we decide (again, it's all hypothetical) it's time to get working on it. Part of me wants to do it "right" (you know, let my son design the car, we cut it out of the wooden block, and then he does the rest: sanding, painting, adding decorations, etc), and yet the part of me that was raised the way I was says, "they have pre-cut cars at the store".

So I have a question. And remember, I'm still speaking hypothetically. If I were to, say, run my son to the store so he can pick out the pre-cut car, then show him quickly how to sand it (and then finish sanding it after he gives up two minutes later instead of insisting he continues to work on it) and then show him how to spray paint it (and then take over and finish most of the painting after he tries for a second, because I'm too worried that he'll get clumps or spray something (or even someone) that shouldn't be spray painted). I then add the purchased accessories (decals, spoiler, engine, and some other weights), after getting some input from him. Then I have him hammer one of the wheels in place, but the nail goes in a little crooked, so I pull it back out and fix it and then hammer in the rest of the nails. Keep in mind, all of this is finished at 10:30 pm the night before the race, and we were supposed to weigh the car in by 9 pm that night. So we take the "late weigh-in" option on the day of the race, just a couple of hours before it's supposed to start, and we still only get there with 2 minutes to spare. I'm not saying all this happened. Like I said, I'm just imagining this whole thing. I promise.

So, let's just say that hypothetical situation actually occurred (not that it did, of course. I'm just playing the "what-if" game). Do you think that I'm robbing my 8-year-old of the valuable cub scout experiences he deserves?

Like I said, it's all hypothetical. I know, I have a crazy (and somewhat detailed) imagination, right? But that's not how it went down. Really.

By the way, on a COMPLETELY unrelated note, have you ever noticed how the word hyPOTHETICal almost has the word PATHETIC in it? Just an observation.