<p>the common denominator seems to be that our “really smart” kids are seriously lacking in the “walking around smarts” dept. </p>
<p>There are days that I beat myself up trying to think of what I could have done differently when raising S1. </p>
<p>The OP’s story isn’t the first time I’ve come across that situation. My close friend’s ivy-educated D did the same thing with a very large envelope…just stuck one stamp on it and thought that was fine. My friend and I can’t figure out why very smart kids seem to lack some very basic knowledge. It’s like they know what they need to know for school, but have spent very little time learning and paying attention to the everyday things in life. </p>
<p>I still have to remind my son that banks aren’t open on Sundays and other things that us “regular folks” just know. </p>
<p>Last summer we got a huge cell phone bill. His GF was in Africa on Study Abroad and the two of them had been calling each other on a daily basis. Son had “no idea” that there would be additional charges for these calls.</p>
<p>I actually spent several hours figuring out how to snail mail a letter a few weeks ago. In 21 years of life, I’d NEVER had to do it before. I knew I had to put on a stamp, looked up online how much postage was, but had no idea how to tell how much the stamps I had were worth. I put like four on just to be safe. >.< To be perfectly honest, I still don’t know. I stole some of my dad’s liberty stamps when I was home for christmas to mail in my credit card bills.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I will have to call mom and ask if four days before the due date is too late to pay the credit card bill by snail mail. Never done that before either. I’ve always paid it online.</p>
<p>But if it’s any consolation, I know the bank isn’t open on sunday and that I don’t have international calling on my phone. :P</p>
<p>I cross my fingers that my kids were inoculated against dumb moves when we watched a woman shred all four of her tires driving the wrong way into a parking lot— over the “severe tire damage” barrier.</p>
<p>I freaked out and thought I was going to fall off and get run over so I decided to jump off the hood.</p>
<p>I was on a pony when I was about 15 ( this was at a summer camp- if you caught the ponies before breakfast you could ride them)
The pony I caught- was a piggy- so he was easy to grab but he also liked to buck.
I was on him for what seemed like 10 minutes, but was probably more like30 seconds & decided it was time to get off. I was still holding on & wasn’t sliding off- but I thought I better get down now.
oof.</p>
<p>My son was home on break last week and took my car, a sedan, out to run errands. He called me: “Mom I just did something really stupid”. He’d locked the keys in the car. Ok, that was dumb and somewhat inconvenient, but fixable. I got in DH’s car to take him another key when I got another call: “Mom, nevermind, I got into the car.” He had popped the trunk before locking the other doors. He remembered that the back seat folded forward from inside the trunk. He’s 6’3. He crawled into the trunk, folded the back seat down, crawled through that space and into the front seat where he could grab the keys. </p>
<p>At least he didn’t leave the lights on and need a jump start, something he did constantly in high school.</p>
<p>Oh yea, I remember when I was skating near the duck pond. It suddenly occurred to me that I was going rather fast and rapidly approaching the water but had no idea how to stop. I decided to stop with my knees–YOUCH! When I went to the health center to get patched up, the doc on duty kept trying to dispense me b/c pills. Tell me how that relates to bandaging scrapes on my knees??? Maybe, on 2nd thought I might not want to know! In any case, lesson learned, never did that again.</p>
<p>H, on the other hand, decided to ride a Razor Scooter down a very steep incline and started to think he was going very fast when he topped over and hit his head (of course was wearing NO protection). He was shaken up and had some impressive bruises. The consensus of the MDs at the party was that he seemed OK & since it was a Sunday, just go home & call the doc the next day. He was yelled at the next day by his doc for not going to the ER (but all they did was have him get an xray which confirmed that everything was OK except for the bruises). He went around telling people I BEAT HIM! Argh!</p>
<p>I have also locked my keys into the car, twice. Once when my baby was a very small non-speaking infant at a gas station, with the engine running. The gas station attendant managed to break the clip on one of the doors trying to open it. I stopped them & got hubby to leave work & bring me his spare key to my car. The other time, I had rented a car in a strange city and took my toddler & preschooler to Six Flags. I coerced them to go on a ride with me where we were DRENCHED and then walked back with them around the parking lot searching for our rental car, which none of us remembered – neither color nor model nor exactly where we parked. After some searching we found it–the only car with keys in the ignition! The guard had me sign a release & popped the door open in SECONDS! I had to buy them dry Six Flags t-shirts, since we were all sopping wet & cold. They have hated all branches of that “amusement” park ever since.</p>
<p>This thread makes me fall off my chair laughing! My DD did tell me just the other day that her friends that are NOT AP are taking “Personal Economics” instead of AP Economics. THEY are learning to make a budget, life insurance, banking…etc. My kid is learning…supply and demand economics, marketing trending, etc. If you think about it, percentage wise the AP kids are more likely to be on their own in a far flung place immediately after high school. Perhaps more life skills training would be appropriate? The kids in general ed will on a percentage basis probably still have some time at home to learn these skills…I did purchase a great book written by a local Dad called Financial Advice for the New High School Graduate by Mike Kelly. Perfect reference for kids starting an independent life on getting a job, paychecks, budgeting, credit, buying a car, renting and furnishing an apt, roommates… highly recommend for at least SOME of the issues. Have other people found other great resources???</p>
<p>Shoot4moon, Your request for resources would probably get more attention & participation if you started a new thread. It might be useful to have one for HS students going off to college as well as new college grads heading into the work world, and all that it entails. Just a thought. BScouts has all the boys learn at least a bit about personal finances, tracking the family budget, writing a check, etc. if they want to become an Eagle Scout. Not meaning to hijack this thread.</p>
<p>Speaking of scouts, I still recall the camping trip I went to with them. We repeatedly told the boys NO FOOD in the tents because of furry rodents. If anyone has any food, label it & let us store it in camp supplies (in sturdy plastic cooler that is rodent-resistant). We got a lot of nods. Late that night, we heard cursing and yelling and went to the scene. One of the asst scoutmaster’s S was mad that a rodent had gnawed through is backpack to get the M&Ms there & they were falling down, plink, plink, plink. He was mad at the rat/mouse–we were pretty unhappy with HIM! ;)</p>
<p>HImom: reminds me of something I did at Girl Scout Camp. I went to Girl Scout Camp on Catalina Island. They had a rule that all care packages sent from home had to be kept with the counselors (I think they put them in a refrigerator). Of course we thought that was a stupid rule so we hid my care package (cake, candy, cookies) deep in my friends duffle bag. We were sleeping in platform tents and in the middle of the night we woke up to 3 wild boars in our tent eating our care package! My friend’s duffle bag was completely destroyed.</p>
<p>Have you seen the cars destroyed at Yosemite from bears trying to get in? They open cars like a can, peeling back whatever metal or glass is in the way. It just has to look or smell like food to set them off! It’s the same but slightly lesser in Yellowstone. I thought my GF was a bit overboard about putting all clothing that might have had any food spilled on it in a bag high in a tree, but when I thought back about the vehicles on exhibit at Yosemite, I deferred to her judgment. There are so many folks who just “don’t think.” So glad you & your friends were not harmed by the wild boars!</p>
<p>OP here… D lives a charmed life. You know how she didn’t put enough postage on her internship applications? One of her top choices for internships emailed her today. They said, “All we have is a recommendation letter for you, we are missing the rest of your app. But we would really like to interview you, please email your materials and we will set up an interview for next week”. D has sent an email to the internship coordinator a couple of months ago with a question about the app, so she figure that is how they got her email address.</p>
<p>Of course, she had the problem that her second recommendation letter was in the “lost” envelope…</p>
<p>That first recommendation letter that was received must have been a doozy.</p>
<p>Dropped S off at airport to return to college after a break and received a call from him on my way home that he had forgotten his laptop charger. Went home, retrieved charger and met S in front of departures. He walks up with nothing in his hands! “Where is your carry-on and laptop?” “At the gate. I didn’t want to have to deal with the surly security agents again.” “Are you aware that there are thieves in airports as well as reports for unaccompanied bags that can shut down the entire airport!!!” Fortunately all turned out well and I am just a paranoid parent.</p>
<p>When DS went to the west coast for a summer internship, he got a cheap car. Just before his internship ended, he put the car on Craigslist. Some three people came to his apartment at about ten in the evening and took a ride. When they made an offer, he took the hundred dollar bills from them, signed whatever they asked him to and handed the keys, the plates, the registration, the title, everything - just like selling textbooks for a course that just ended. Didn’t even write down the buyers name or address, or keep the license plate number - just had a phone number.</p>
<p>After talking with me, he tried to communicate with them and they told him they were done with the deal and there was nothing to talk about. Had him call the police and file a statement that he had sold the car to persons unknown - fortunately the insurance company had the plate number and other such details.</p>
<p>“I have seen people get 4-6 traffic tickets at the same time by the same officer–you think there may have been some personality conflict!!!”</p>
<p>"It really adds up to a tidy sum & often when you meet the driver, you can definitely understand why that person did not get along with the officer! "</p>
<p>If the driver has attitude, he gets a heck of a lot more tickets for the same situation than a driver who is apologetic and earnestly promises to make improvements. You can see some of these drivers in court and understand why they don’t know they have a huge chip on their shoulder and antagonize the officers–heck they antagonize the judge and court personnel as well! Definitely could benefit from attitude adjustment.</p>
<p>^ I once got eight at once. Had just moved form DC to the Bronx, had just started by pediatric residency, made a u turn, got pulled over and had forgotten my wallet. I was probably suggesting he hurry up with the ticket so I could get to the hospital. He gave me one ticket for not having my DC license, one for no having a NY license, one for not having a DC registration, one for not having a NY registration, one for not having a DC insurance card, one for…blah blah blah…then I had an accident on the way to court, where I would have shown my license, etc. and taken care of it.</p>
<p>I don’t think I have an attitude, but I sure was thinking “could you hurry UP!!!”.</p>
<p>I have one that has those stunning long eyelashes that actually touched his glasses. It bothered him so he cut them off…on Mother’s Day. When he got his first cel phone, before data plans, he figured out how to connect to the Internet. Slow. Cumbersome. But, he was online. (this was not a smartphone). The bill was over $2k. I called what was then Cingular and begged for mercy. Fifteen managers later and the charges were waived, including the $1k that hadn’t hit the bill yet! Data block has been on every phone since !!!</p>
<p>This isn’t about my kid, but my stepfather, with a PhD from Stanford in math (!), who did one of the dumbest things and although this happened about 20 years ago, I still laugh when I remember it. He was setting up our badmitten net for the season --the poles for the net had three separate long pieces that you pushed together (to assemble each pole). Rather than hammer in the first pole then stack the pieces on top, he instead put both the poles together then went to get a TALL ladder and was hammering away at the completely assembled poles! Funnier still, their yard was an entire acre, so he carried that ladder there and back ;). </p>
<p>Another favorite, he and my brother had built a small model cannon (they built model planes, cars etc. often). They set up lawn chairs for themselves in the backyard, then placed a watermelon on top of a concrete block with the cannon pointed at the watermelon. They were about to light the cannon when I walked into the back yard. I asked them if it was possible that the cannon ball might hit the concrete block by mistake and bounce back at them, since their lawn chairs were rather close? They looked at each other with a look of question, then jumped out of their chairs to move them back, laughing! Uh, yeah, they were very smart guys (brother is now a lawyer), but they could do the dumbest things.</p>
<p>I know a young mom who said her adult brother (another attorney) was playing with her toddlers and then wandered off, leaving them right beside an open swimming pool. When the owner of the house saw the unattended toddlers near the pool, he said, “Who is watching those toddlers?” The brother said, “Not me, I’m done playing with them for now.” Said uncle was not allowed to play with the toddlers again unsupervised. ;)</p>
<p>Another time, a young pre-schooler was walking with his grandpa at a crowded shopping mall, to help keep said grandpa from straying too much. A short while later, said pre-schooler showed up sans grandpa, who had sent him back to the car in the crowded parking lot ALONE. That was the last time grandson was allowed to go anywhere alone with grandpa.</p>
<p>Somehow, the preschoolers/toddlers did survive to adulthood.</p>