Instruction Guys

There are two types of guys in the world: those who read instructions and those who don’t.

I’m the former. If something comes with an instruction book, be it a new camera or a new car, I’m compelled to read the thing cover to cover. I want to know what my stuff does and how to make it do it. I like to squirrel myself away into a quiet corner of the house, crack open the book and read and tinker until I’ve hit the back cover. Every once in a while I usually call out to WonderWife™, “Do you know that [gadget] does [incredibly cool thing]?” And she calls back, “I don’t care!”

There are a lot of guys on the other side of the fence. Guys who don’t bother with instructions—either because they like to figure things out for themselves or they just don’t care enough about the bells and whistles to spend the time.

Kids don’t come with instructions, but there is a plethora of parenting books. Since I am an instruction guy, I have read my share. A few of my friends also went the book route. But there are some, not instruction guys, who went into this parenting thing blind. My experience with dads is that we don’t sit around swapping parenting tips. We will boast about our offspring and share battle stories, but advice between dads seems to be few and far between.

It’s easy to be an instruction guy. But how do non-instruction guys learn about this stuff?

--DGB