What is the best way to turn a shared gaming session into an opportunity to teach patience and teamwork? 

Parenting Perspective 

Shared gaming sessions can be a powerful and natural way to teach important life skills. By joining your teen in a world they enjoy, you can guide them towards virtues like patience and teamwork in a way that feels like coaching, not lecturing. 

Choose Cooperative Games and Play Together 

Instead of just watching, actively join your teen in playing. Opt for cooperative games that require players to work together to solve problems or achieve a common goal. Your objective is not to win, but to model the very skills you want to teach: patience, communication, and strategic thinking. 

Highlight Teamwork in Real Time 

During the game, become a gentle commentator on the value of teamwork. You can point out, ‘See how waiting for each other there helped us succeed?’ or, ‘That was a great idea to combine our efforts’. These small, in-the-moment observations reinforce the lesson without interrupting the fun. 

Create Mini-Challenges to Encourage Collaboration 

Introduce small, fun challenges that can only be completed by working together. This could be achieving a specific in-game objective or completing a quest that requires coordinated effort. Celebrating these small, shared victories shows your teen that collaboration leads to greater success than individual effort alone. 

Reflect Together After the Session 

Keep the learning alive with a brief and casual chat after the game is over. Ask questions like, ‘What was our best team play today?’ or ‘Where could we have been a bit more patient?’ This turns the gaming session into a reflective experience, helping your teen internalise the lessons. 

By engaging in this way, shared gaming becomes more than just a pastime; it becomes a practical training ground for character development. 

Spiritual Insight 

Islam encourages us to find opportunities for character development in all our daily activities. When approached with the right intention, even leisure can become a means of nurturing Islamic virtues. 

Allah Almighty states in the noble Quran at Surah Al Asr (103), Verses 1–3: 

‘ By the (design of) time (by Allah Almighty); indeed, mankind shall surely (remain in a state) of) deprivation (moral deficit), except for those people who are believers and undertake virtuous acts; and encouraging (cultivating within themselves and with one another the realisation and dissemination of) the truth and encouraging (cultivating within themselves and with one another the realisation and accomplishment of) resilience. ‘ 

This verse highlights that a key characteristic of those who are successful is that they “encourage one another to patience.” A shared gaming session provides a perfect, modern context for a parent to practise this very act: gently coaching their teen to be patient with their teammates and with the challenges of the game. 

Islam teaches us that striving for strength in our character is a noble pursuit. 

It is recorded in Bulugh Al Maram, 90, that the holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: 

‘The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, while there is good in both. Strive for what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not give up.‘ 

This hadith reminds us that building strength including the emotional strength of patience and the social strength of teamwork is an act beloved by Allah. By using a shared game to build these beneficial skills, a parent and teen are “striving for what benefits them” and nurturing a stronger, more resilient character.