Tell me my teens aren't the only ones lol

This thread is EXCELLENT.

I was the teen with an overdose of common sense (making me the sensible one) but I'm in my 30s and I still found myself wondering last week if it would work buttering the bread before putting it in the toaster.

I still have no idea which compartment in the washing machine drawer washing powder, liquid and fabric conditioner go and at least once a year I forget myself and take a pan out of the oven barehanded.

I’ll add from one I’ve done myself back in the day 🤣.

my dad was on a fishing trip with his friend and phoned to tell me he was just leaving, would be home in 45 mins. He just fancied a salad for dinner so did I mind putting a couple of eggs on to boil for him getting in. No problem I say.
Dad comes home 45 mins later to tuck into his boiled eggs that have the consistency of cannonballs after being boiled for 45 mins by me. Topped up the water and everything. No one had ever told me how long to boil an egg for I just presumed it must take that long if he was phoning that far ahead 🫠

Never has an egg been eaten in the family home since without that story getting a run out.

edited to add I’m 28 now, this was at least 14 years ago 🤣

Mine poured melted wax, since how else would you get rid of a liquid..

I had to dissemble all the pipework to get the block of solid wax out.

Same one did the buttered bread in the toaster thing too.

I suppose I never specifically said not to do those things...
She can cook meals, change a bed, put a wash on, use various tools safely... but has a habit of acting before thinking.

I’ll confess that at age 40 ish and away at a holiday cottage with another family we realised that we had no dishwasher tablets. So the other mum and I decided to put a couple of squirts of washing up liquid into the dishwasher, and went out. Came back to literally knee deep bubbles filling the kitchen 🤣

That example in particular is shocking.

But cracking an egg into a pan and cooking the shell as well? There is more than one of those on this thread. Do you need problem solving skills for that?

Is it possible to live in a house and see their parents crack an egg and not thought, hey, maybe we don't eat the shell ...

Fully agree!

Judging by this thread I am very glad that my 20yo DD seems to have grown up with common sense and half decent problem solving skills! Some of these replies are absolutely batshit. How on earth are half of these teens and young adults going to cope in the real world?

Don’t get me wrong, DD isn’t perfect by any means but there are so many examples here of blatant learned helplessness. Very depressing.

Thank you!

Exactly my point

I told her to the bottom of the bowl was really hot to hold the sides, she grabbed it from the bottom 🙃

Asked her to hang the washing on the line, wondered what was taking so long and she said she couldn’t find the hangers.

Wanted to clean/tidy my car, turned out she’d seen a tiktok hack to stop glass misting. She had put shaving foam all over the front window and ‘buffed’ it in. Didn’t find that out until the 7am leaving the next morning 🤣🤣

This thread is depressing. These children are our future.

by 18 I was half way across the world. Living independently, cooking eggs, using the microwave doing the washing.

ffs parents, take some responsibility and teach your children life skills. It’s not funny, it’s pretty horrifying.

I remember DB putting potatoes on the stove to boil but failing to add water to the pan.

I'm sorry about your health, but your children have become your carers. There is support now for children who are careers.That's not the normal teen experience

My ds is just 18, and can do normal things like washing and cooking basic stuff.
However, we live in the countryside and drive everywhere, so when faced with taking a train on his own for the first time, he used the train app for info rather than the platform screens. The app told him his train was one minute late, so when a train arrived at the platform at the same time his train should have been due, he stood there, watched the doors open and close, and only after the train left did he realise he’d missed it.
We have not let him forget this, and it gets brought up at every opportunity 😆

I asked my 16yo to nip to the grocers for some fresh coriander as I’d forgotten it. I explained about coriander and warned him it looked like parsley. I texted him “coriander”, sent him a picture and said ask someone if unsure.

He came back with a veritable bouquet of PARSLEY. Said it looked about right so thought it’d do.

But I was the 14 year old who practiced a gymnastics move in the park that I wasn’t confident with/competent at. Hard summer ground and falling mid flip meant a dislocated elbow and my poor grandpa having to drive 20 minutes to collect me whilst I tried not to vomit/faint from the pain. Learned a big lesson with that one.

I thought I was inadequate in not knowing how to work a washing machine (it was a special, precious thing that no imbecile child was to be permitted to see working) when I bought my first one, was mightily confused as to how a mop did anything other than spread dirt around the floor (because there wasn't one at home) and hadn't got a clue how to work a shower because I'd only ever seen one at somebody else's house and I thought they'd laugh at me if I asked how it worked.

It was nothing compared to the ex, who when he saw I'd taken the food out, wrapped it to keep it cold - all worked out by myself - and switched the three month old (and at £199, very expensive to me on £57 a week) fridge freezer off to defrost the big lump of ice that used to be the freezer compartment, declared that I was wasting time, he knew what to do - and promptly jammed the point of a kitchen knife into the metal.

You can try and provide all the instructions and life lessons possible but teens will still do daft things. I'm not sure whether it is a lack of application of the information they have been provided with or just a belief that now they are heading for adulthood they know better.

My oldest done this as well 😂😂 genuinely words fail me with her and her common sense at times!

To be fair, I was petrified of calling people until my 30s and I'm an 80s baby, I still hate it now but I have a grown up job so I have no choice anymore 😂

DS 12 was getting his stuff ready for his cookery lesson the next day and decided to eat a whole raw chilli pepper. It made him so thirsty that he downed so much water that he threw up! Asked him what he was doing - experimenting! Better than drink or drugs I guess…

I just want to add that some of my Mum's carers, grown adults, put cheese on her teacakes before putting in the toaster! When a note was left about that they used to microwave the cheese on top to melt it. Very much better still than leaving the grill on, shutting the grill door, and going. So not just teenagers.
My own 18 year old teen flooded the kitchen, through light fittings, as they forgot the bath was running, and when I came in from work to find the 15 year old teen holding a bucket under the light just hoped I wouldn't notice and then complained I wouldn't let them turn the electric back on to finish their hair! Car keys locked in the car - twice in a week. Most of the above. They all seem to function in flood free zones now though!

When I was sixteen my mum asked me to put the cream sofa covers in the wash while she was out. A bright pink cushion cover from my bedroom was sitting on top of them in the basket ... I'm sure you can guess. I've never lived it down.

Ah so many of these have had me in stitches!
I can’t think of any of my own right now but I’m absolutely certain my teens have had some proper brain fart moments.
No one can know EVERYTHING, and some things like ‘no metal in the microwave’ don’t always ring true. You can use it in ours for example and although I’m sure I’ve said to the dc before that you can’t use it in all microwaves I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if they forgot if they went elsewhere.

Oh I do hope my kids grow up without any common sense too. I’ll be crying with laughter! Crying!

Friends daughter rang her to ask how do I lock the door. Her Mother said - turn the key that's in the lock. The daughter replied, that's why I called you - I wasn't sure which way. Mother, did you not just give it try? There are only two options!