I don’t get the comment about the buttons, either, @dragonmom. I take the garment in with the button and say can you sew this on for me? It has nothing to do with whether the garment was dry clean only. Lots of dry cleaners serve as tailors too, at least for simple things like buttons and fixing hems. They can sew patches onto scout uniforms and the like. They can reinforce buttons too on heavy coats and such. Yeah, I could do it myself, but it’s not worth my time and I don’t have a zillion colors of thread at my disposal.
How to OPEN a sealed snail mail envelope
Yes – D2, college junior, can’t do it without shredding the envelope.
I often have the seamstress at our dry cleaner do alterations and minor repairs for me without necessarily having the garment cleaned. If I want to get a brand new pair of pants shortened, I’m not going to pay for cleaning as well as the alteration, even if the pants are dry-clean-only (which they would never be because I’m not insanely rich).
I do sew on my own buttons and repair hems that have come undone, but that’s the limit of my skills. Everything else goes to the seamstress at the dry cleaner, who amazingly manages to do exactly what I wanted even though she speaks very little English. She’s worth every penny.
My other smart son decided to use the snow shovel, the one with metal on it, to help clean off his car. This was a couple of years ago, not this storm.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been a single mom most of my son’s life and have become very independent or maybe it’s because I’m an exceptionally frugal person and won’t pay for anyone to do something that I can figure out how to do on my own, but my son (in his fourth year of college) has been doing everything mentioned and more for what seems most of his life.
He not only has and can change light bulbs, but he also knows how to shut off circuits at the circuit box and do simple electrical wiring including moving or installing light fixtures and outlets.
He can unclog a toilet, remove and install one if necessary, installed his own washer and dryer (including locating the correct cords), and can do other minor plumbing repairs.
He can jump a car, has his own jumper cables and proudly calls whenever he jumps a stranded stranger. He can also change tires, fill all the fluids in a car, replace windshield wipers and has done both minor body and mechanical work.
He actually had a semester long sewing class in junior high and can sew well enough to do anything critically needed. He can cook his own meals and loves to bake and enjoys making cupcakes entirely from scratch (not from one of those cake mix boxes) and giving them to his friends.
He knows how to write a business letter, resume, mail letters and packages. He knows how to deposit, transfer, and withdraw money at a bank and has credit cards both as an authorized signer on my account and in his own name.
He has been forced to deal with both auto and renter’s insurance claims after his car was hit and totaled by an uninsured driver and his apartment was burglarized during a school break.
He has disassembled his own bicycle to repaint and upgrade some parts and put it all back together.
He has travelled by himself both personally and professionally (his co-op) including booking airfare and flying on his own and staying in hotels.
I actually find it kind of difficult to think of something that he doesn’t know about ‘real life’, which is a good thing since he’ll be part of it very soon, but if I had to think of one thing, supervising him when he did his own taxes last year was a lot harder than it should have been. He needs to practice that a few more times before I trust him to do that on his own.
I think that’s great. I also think though some people are naturally mechanical and others are not. I am not and you wouldn’t want to ride any bike that I took apart and put back together.
Some of the things mentioned here aren’t restricted to kids or young adults. I know several ostensible older adults…including some middle aged and older adults who can’t change lightbulbs.
However, some other “real life” skills are not necessarily universal.
For instance, most kids and even adults who grew up in areas with excellent public transportation where cars are not only unnecessary…but also can be an expensive hassle don’t know how to jump other cars…or even have a license for that matter.
Suzanne Vega is one notable individual who didn’t get her driver’s license until well into her adulthood:
http://www.suzannevega.com/street-legal-finally-by-suzanne-vega/
Also, kids/people who spent their entire lives living in apartments are unlikely to pick up skilled considered basic…but critical for maintaining a house and/or a yard.
If this is an issue, a letter opener or knife/sword is just what the mailcarrier ordered. 
As someone who is somewhat mechanically inclined…I’ll can rest assured just in case you decide to make an exception for yours truly…
I think a lot of this is based on circumstance and the changing role of schools. When we were kids, most of us had to take either home ec or shop, depending on gender. So we women learned basic cooking and sewing, and our male friends learned basic wood or metal shop, and maybe some basic car care. My oldest-who is 31, had to take both a semester of cooking/sewing and one of shop in middle school. More of one than I had, less of both than either parent. Now most schools don’t even HAVE vocational classes. You need to be in an alternative or remedial school for that. So we have very bright kids who can’t do much of what we learned as a matter of course.
My H was raised like @jrcsmom 's S. He grew up lower income with a windowed mom who worked 2 jobs. He never learned to be mechanical, but he could plan a week’s menu, shop for food and cook it by the time he was 10. He could sew a button or a simple seam. He took business class in HS so he learned his way around writing resumes, letters, etc. But he can’t, to this day, assemble even a simple bookcase or change a tire. My son grew up in relative privilege, and loves all things mechanical, so while he knows HOW to cook, does not. But give him a broken engine, motor, appliance, faucet, etc. and he will fix it before your eyes.
I think some kids today are so hyper-focused that they don’t observe how to do everyday things. Others have it all done for them by their parents. Still others learn how to call the right number to pay someone else to do it all. And for some things, like learning how to open an envelope, they probably don’t care.
My D and all of her friends just Google everything. I’ll mention something she’ll need to figure out for a project at school, and she’ll respond with how the group Googled step-by-step instructions. They’re very hands-on, but not from us teaching them.
I also think that in “our day” parents made most of us more self-reliant because that’s how it was done. Now, that doesn’t seem to be as high on the list as academics and the race to the top. YMMV, of course.
My kids taught me to do this. Sometimes their generation is ahead of ours.
I either Google or ask out here. 
My brother in law is a very handy guy. He can build a deck, install a dishwasher, garbage disposal, fix a car. I asked him how he learned all this (he’s a civil engineer, but this all goes way beyond that) and he said when he was young his father did some construction and always took him along (and his brother, also an engineer), showing him how to turn the sprinklers on and off, how to unclog a drain, how to patch a roof, minor plumbing, carpentry, and all the little ‘honey do’ list things.
I asked him who he was passing this knowledge to. No one. I said he needed to show his son and my kids how to do these things.
I’m very guilty about doing it myself and not teaching my kids to sew (I’m self taught and I refused to teach my mother too, as I just don’t have the patience). They know little about cars and repairs, but they don’t own cars.
If people don’t want to learn to sew on buttons, they can spend the money to have someone else do it. Someone offered to teach me how to change the oil in my car. I told him no, that I would NEVER change the oil myself, so it is a skill I don’t need to know. My sister can’t sew on a button, but she no longer needs the drycleaner to do it because she has her husband, who knows how to do everything. See above. He does all the laundry and most of the household work too. She (used to) make the money. It works for them.
In the other direction, when I asked my son to show me how to do something on my computer, he rolled his eyes. It was quite simple actually. I reminded him that I taught him how to wipe his bum!
- Did not know that the post office will forward your mail after you move if you ask them to.
- Did not know that he could mail a check for deposit directly to the (hometown) bank--was going to mail it to me to take to the bank for him.
I’m amused by those saying you can google how to do things… I know Google owns YouTube, but IMHO the YouTube how-to videos are the best way to learn things. My DD learned how to put chains in my car, in a snowstorm, using a video on YouTube.
Oops, back to the button/dry cleaner thing - I was obviously unclear. I know that they will tailor and repair things, it’s just that we go to the cleaners about once a year. In my closet, the only things that require dry cleaning are a wool coat (last worn in about 2001) and two formal dresses. DH wears a suit about once a year and a sport coat two or three times. Everything else gets washed in the machine or by hand. If getting a button sewn on at the cleaners is easy for you, then you must be heading there anyway on a regular basis. That’s all I meant. Sorry if I confused anyone or sounded rude somehow.
I remember many years ago, when I was young (probably mid-twenties), I had a female boss (she was unmarried and at least 10 years my senior) One day,a button on her blouse cuff came off and she had no idea how to sew it on. I did it for her. (my grandparents worked in the garment district when they immigrated in the early 1900’s - everybody in my family was taught how to sew a button and repair a hem!)
When I was in middle school in NYC in the late 80s/early '90s, cooking had already been eliminated in many schools due to potential liability/budgetary considerations.
Agreed such classes have been cut back due to stigmatization among students and parents in high schools where a critical majority are aspiring to attend 4-year colleges. Most at best feel such classes are irrelevant and at worst, some feel it’s a sign one has been pigeonholed off the college-prep path.
There were, however, some exceptions. Stuy and the other 2 “original 3” NYC Specialized high schools not only offered shop classes in wood, metal, and more, but also required all students to take some as part of our HS graduation requirements.
Took both wood and metal shop. Good teachers in both and good class experiences…but found I’m much more suited to working with sheet metal than wood.
I was surprised to see an article that the number of young people getting drivers licenses is declining. Good news for Uber and companies pushing self-driving cars.
http://www.businessinsider.com/young-people-drivers-licenses-decline-2016-1
The home ec and shop classes in my day were in middle school, but in HS you could take them, or a full year of auto shop. Those kids generally were not planning on college, but OTOH they had jobs an were self-supporting sooner than most of us future college kids. There’s still a need out there for people who can repair cars, build homes, etc. I wish the options to learn a trade like that were easier to come by.