Maintain Your Patience Level

Have you ever noticed how inept some women can be with things like cars, electronics, anything mechanical and technology in general? I think there’s a technology gene in the Y chromosome, something like the shopping gene which is found in the X chromosome. In the same way that we, as guys, can’t understand the joy that women feel in shopping, they can’t understand technology.

Maybe your wife is different, but mine is amongst the world-class technologically inept. However, that doesn’t mean that she won’t use technology, just that she doesn’t understand it. While she was teaching in the public schools the last few years, she had a reputation as her department’s tech wizard (foreign language department). She was streaming video, using PowerPoints and interactive web sites in almost every class. She just didn’t understand how to do it.

My wife had a secret weapon, her own personal geek. Yep, you got it; she got me to help her. Now, that really wasn’t all that bad, like any guy, I feel good when my wife asked for my expertise. The problem came when she got frustrated with fighting her computer, and asked me how to do things for the umpteenth time.

You know, it’s real easy to get frustrated at those moments; especially when you’re doing something important, and you have to drop it all of a sudden, to help her out. Just to do put the cherry on top of the cake, she would often vent her frustration at the computer in the way she talked to me. Oops.

Our natural reaction at those times is to reply in kind. “If you’re going to growl at me, then I’m going to growl right back.” Hmmm, you’d think we’d have gotten over acting like animals by now.

This is where patience comes in. When your wife growls like that, it’s time to respond with a nice, soft, soothing word. The last thing you want to end up doing is fighting over her frustration with the computer, or whatever it is that your wife gets frustrated at.

So what if you need to explain to her how to copy and paste for the 500^th time. At least you’re helping her, being her hero, getting her through that rough moment. Isn’t that worth the five minutes you’re going to spend explaining it one more time? Be patient, maybe on the 501^st time, she’ll actually get it.