Anyway, my godson wants to play a game called Hydro Thunder. It's a super-speedboat racing game that isn't extremely hard, but does require a few instructions to play. As the game started, I sat back and allowed him time to view the instructions, but he skipped past them. "Don't you need to read the instructions to know what you're doing?" I asked.
"No, I know how to play," he replied which is code for "I don't want to."
So, I decided to do the "tough love" thing and I completely dominated him in the game. He seemed only a little bit frustrated, so we played again and I beat him even worse the second time. "You know," I started, "if you read the instructions, you may do better."
He didn't respond as he hit the start button en route to his third straight butt-kicking at my hands. Finally, he decided to go back to the menu and read the instructions to see how he could improve his play. After he read the instructions, I rewarded him by allowing him to barely beat me. "Do you see how much better you played after you took time to read the instructions?" I asked.
"Yes, sir," he responded never taking his eyes off the screen.
I allowed him to win a second game which brought a smile to his face. Did he learn a lesson? Only time will tell. I'm not sure if you patience is something you're born with or not, but I'm doing what I can to instill it into my god kids. Things can turn out so much better when you take the time to learn how to maximize your abilities by reading. I wonder if kids are so impatient simply because everything in technology these days brings about instant gratification.
I always read the instructions before playing a video game when I was a kid, but then again, video games were a quarter when I was young. I knew that I would be foolish and quickly out of money to play without taking the time to learn the controls. So, maybe that's where I developed some patience. Or, is it because I always saw my older brother buy something and read the instructions before he even bothered to take the product out of the box.