Lessons Learned From The Claw Machines

While staying in Tarlac during our vacation, we visited SM Mall to walk around and window-shop for a few hours.

After having lunch at Mr KIMBOB, the kids insisted to drop by Tom's World, where they enjoyed kiddie rides when they were young. 

We bought a hundred peso worth of tokens (the limit our family set to use in such arcades) and gave our children the option of using their coins to play any game they wanted. They were drawn to these claw machines. They all played these attractive machines attempting to win a stuffed toy. Observing all of them, Anatolin and I saw the disappointment from their faces after each failed attempt. Our children finally gave up except our youngest who was very persistent to capture a toy. When she was out of coins, she asked for more and insisted many times that if she had one more chance to play, she knew she could win the prize. Her older siblings then gave her a very important lesson. The same lesson we taught them when they were her age. They explained to her about the way these games work – although there is some element of skill and luck involved, the claw only catches tightly part of the time and not all the time. Recognizing the reality that the machines are designed to make it nearly impossible to win, she finally agreed going to Blue Magic for a sure toy. Our youngest really has soft spot for adorable plushies. 

It occurred to me that there is a metaphor in this claw machine experience for success. Despite our skill at perfectly positioning the claw over the prize and activating it, we will find that the pincers just don't grab tightly enough to pick up a toy. No matter how persistent and consistent we are, we don't usually end up with our desired results simply because the system we use is dysfunctional or flawed. There are numerous kinds of systems that influence our daily life and reassessing them is as important as inspecting our vehicle before driving.