Not either of my kids but the nephew of someone I used to work with best appreciated by those familiar with the NYC metro area and the highways. This young man, newly licensed driver was given permission to drive to Nassau Coliseum from NJ to go to a concert. He was given directions which he followed carefully to drive on the Northern State Parkway. It took him quite awhile to return home and his parents were getting worried. So when he arrived he told them because he drove one way on the Northern State Parkway… he would drive back by following directions to the Southern State Parkway.
More recently, my supervisor’s daughter driving home from Rutgers realized that she had never driven north on the Tpke or Garden State, only South and had no idea what the exit was called or the number. She also was low on gas and low battery on her phone.
One of my sisters just didn’t retain much when it came to her cooking lessons, and called my mom after her first Thanksgiving in her apartment away at college to say proudly that she had cooked a whole turkey by herself. My mom was impressed, as this was the same girl who had set a pan on fire boiling water. It was pretty easy, my sister said, as it was a small turkey, with no “arms or legs”. My mom asked, “You mean a turkey BREAST?” No, my sister insisted it was a WHOLE turkey, with the arms and legs removed. We’re still not sure how she cooked it.
My son (a college sophomore) knows how to do a lot of things, like cooking, cleaning, sewing, food shopping, fixing cars, did his own NYC apartment search and lease signing, pay his own utility bills, keep track of his spending, go see a doctor himself, etc. However, I kept seeing his paychecks laying around in the room, doesn’t he know how to deposit a check in the bank? Finally, one day, I asked him this question, and he said to me: “No one under 30 years old go to the bank these days, we do all our banking on the phone.” Duh.
I recommend the book Pogue’s Basics: Life, by David Pogue as a gift for clueless or potentially clueless young people. Lots of little tips and tricks that make life easier. Many of them are obvious, others are obvious to everyone else but your clueless kid (or you!) Fun book.
Here’s an example of a dumb tip that I didn’t know: you are in a rental car and need gas. What side is the gas cap on? Answer: there’s a little arrow on the gas level indicator on the dashboard that points to the correct side. Thank you, David Pogue!
Depending on the kid(s)" I never knew why Stouffers has instruction that begin with: take the food out of the box.Id had no idea. We took our adult daughters back east to visit Mr. Ellebud’s family. My girls were asked to help their baby cousin prepare the corn on the cob. They stood there while their cousin showed them how to do it…Cousin asked how do you not know how to do it. My older daughter said, "My mom buys them from Gelsons.
My kids think it’s funny that I’m suspicious of depositing checks by phone. Both are adept at banking, traveling, and navigating health care. Cooking, sewing and house repairs - not so much.
D has used the microwave at home for years so I was very surprised when she texted me “Can you not put metal in a microwave?” Apparently, she tried to heat a drink in a metal thermos in the microwave.
D is now proficient at doing laundry, but her first time doing laundry at college she told me that I got her the wrong detergent. She needed liquid detergent instead of pods. The detergent dispenser had a screen on it so she couldn’t get the detergent pod in it.
A friend of our’s son had the opposite problem, @Overtheedge . They bought him pods to do his laundry in college, but he had never used them, and called home to say it was so hard to get them open that he would just rather have the liquid.
When DS first had his checkbook, he did not know how to write a check ( he called home to make sure what he had done was right.)
I forgot how old he was when this happened (but definitely not very young): He did not know we had given him a middle name since his birth. I guess he had always written his name without his middle name or middle name initial before that.
DS had a friend (of the same age) in our (old) neighborhood. They were in the late elementary school or early middle school. His parents bought him a console game system and did not help him set up (connecting to the TV.) Two months after Christmas, DS went to his home as a “play date”. It took DS like two minutes to set it up. Not sure why his parents could not find time for 2 months to help him hook up the game console to the TV and when his friend still did not learn how to do it by himself. (At our home, if we had bought a game console, DS would either set it up by himself or asked us (me) to set it up right after we brought the game console home.)
His parents later divorced. He is a good kid though. I remember that at one time, I suggested this kid to come to our home so that I could teach both him and DS geometry. We told him well advanced to get a certain geometry book. When his parents drove him here, he did have the book but his parents scold him in front of us that if he needed a book, he should give them much more time to buy a book.
Oh when my son took the sat in middle school he didn’t know his zip code.
I have raised the absent minded professor. I tried and I apologize in advance to his future wife. It’s actually fascinating watch him figure out basic things.
@eyemamom, I worry that D2 will end up paired with another absent-minded professor type like herself. Can’t really picture how that will go, and not sure I want to…
Our S is absent-minded at times but lazer-focused at others, so it’s an interesting combo. It depends on what matters to him at the time. D is more absent-minded generally.
