It’s 12:51 this Thursday morning. Dave and I just finished putting together one of Thomas’ birthday gifts–a trampoline with handles that has interactive games when you jump on it! Customer reviews on-line warned its assembly was tough. I am always up for a challenge, but a late night doll house construction this past Christmas and a motorized truck two birthdays ago for Charlotte shook my confidence a bit. The real reason I so willingly tackle these toy tests is because I know Dave will be right there with me. I figure out the manual, and through extensive spatial reasoning God blessed women with, tell Daddy what goes where and how to attach it. He is the strength behind the operation. I once put a bed frame together without him and it nearly collapsed upon use. I am convinced how a couple handles ‘s these often high stress, clandestine birthday and holiday undertakings is a reflection of many aspects of their relationship. At times I get impatient and snappy. Other times Dave is in such a hurry he nearly strips the screws or breaks the plastic parts. But in the end we display mutual respect and understanding. “Honey, I’m sorry but I just realized we put the engine on wrong and you’ll have to take off the hood.” Yes, even ladies some times screw up the directions.
Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 24
This post was written by tthomas on July 29, 2010
Tara, I know what ou mean about working together. My wife has far more patience than I do. Which is probably one of the reasons it took about 30 days for us to replace a garbage disposal. We would get frustrated and instead of snapping at each other, we would just walk away from it for awhile. Come to think of it, 30 days is a little longer than awhile…:-)
And remember Tara… the three deadliest words in the english language. “Some assembly required.”
I read that it’s actually men that have the spatial reasoning advantage by and large, but I can vouch that my wife is the one who decodes these things while I do the caveman hammering, tightening, and pushing together until loud clicking happens. I’m a big “I put it on backwards let me fix that oh wait it was right the first time” kind of guy.
But it’s so much fun building stuff for kids once they see what you’ve done and they experience that utter joy that adults find so difficult to experience.
My pet peeve about “some assembly required” items is when they don’t include any written instructions just pictures. I’m not a visual person so unless it’s incredibly detailed, I won’t be able to figure it out plus many times the drawings indicate things that aren’t in the particular model I have….so frustrating.
My husband doesn’t want to read the directions or he gets mixed up w/ the pictures. I am able to help him and happy to do so. I am also a good map reader & have helped navigate us many times. We do work well together…..
One thing I’ve learned in almost 9 years of marriage…….my husband and I don’t do projects together….unless we want to argue.
Many many many years ago we purchased a metal sink, stove, & refrigerator for our three younger girls & waited until Christmas eve to put them together. They were about 30″ tall, metal and I swear came with about 300 tiny metal screws! There were many exchanged WORDS! We finally finished about 3 AM, and after that everything they received for Christmas and needed to be put together was done the day after Christmas!!!