AIBU to think basic DIY and car skills are being lost?

have you been in a new car OP?! Of course Normal people can’t fix them 🤣😭

Also basic repairs like sewing a button back on.

Most cars no longer have a spare wheel.
My car tells me when the tyre pressure is low and on which tyre.
Annual mot/service tells you tread gauge levels

My dad made me go on a basic car maintenance course as soon as I passed my driving test. I can change the bulbs, check the oil, water and tyre pressure. I can even change a tyre but don’t have a spare on my current car. I spent the weekend re waterproofing my car roof and tidying up the paintwork. But I find things like that interesting.

I can also knit, sew, cook, paint and wallpaper. DS probably doesn’t know how to open a car bonnet and has absolutely no interest in finding out.

Same with cooking and cleaning. People have less time and are happy to pay for the convenience.

I don’t think these skills need to be taught by parents necessarily, literally everything is available on the internet.

Meh, DH had never learnt to put water in his car windscreen wash when I met him at age 30. He had a pretty handy dad, who was just too busy to teach him anything. 30 years later, I'm still doing all the car stuff, as my dad taught me stuff...

Yanbu. I have colleagues who are horrified I'll be painting the hall and stairs at Easter. People who wouldn't consider washing their own car or making a birthday cake. As for fitting a spare wheel if they have a flat tyre, most would call the RAC.

I've taught my ds everything I can think of
My ex is hopeless, he hasn't even shown ds how to check a tyre pressure or use a tread gauge.

Times have moved on.

I used to service my car by changing oil filter, air filter and draining the oil, spark plugs etc. Now I wouldn’t touch a modern car as you need to reset the service counter plus everyone wants a proper service record when selling.

As for decorating I have put up all paper up in every room in many houses but these were old houses that needed wall paper to hide the old plaster. Typically most houses now have better plastered walls and people paint them instead.

So while I agree that the art of DIY is being lost somewhat in other ways YouTube gives so many more people the ability to do it themselves but what they do has changed from when I was young (god I feel old now 😁)

I think some of OP’s examples are quite tricky and not what would call ‘basic’ skills, eg hanging wallpaper or plumbing in a washing machine. I’m in my 50s and certainly couldn’t attempt those tasks.

However, I do agree that many truly basic skills are not being passed on, especially to the entitled Millennial generation, whose parents have done everything for them. I can change a plug and sew a button on, and I would suggest that most people under 35 can’t do either of those things, more do they know how to turn off a stopcock. With cars, I also know quite a few younger people who don’t have a clue how to check or top up tyre pressures or even change screen wash!

Several friends can't even pump their car tyres up. When DH became housebound the local garage told me everything I needed to do (knew about tyres from my Esther teaching me).

Nope. That’s parenting, why do people have this view that it’s the job of a school to bring up kids.

YouTube is like a school for repairs and solving tech problems so learning from parents is not really necessary any more. Equal access for all, which is a boon for those whose parents didn't do diy.

Wasn’t it just a shaver plug?

I bought a new electric toothbrush recently and it had a continental plug on the charging station so I cut it off, stripped the wires and added a 3 pin plug from the local pound shop so I could charge it up. Most people don’t have the first idea how to do this.

Why bother to do this when you have adapters. I use a UK adapter and can still use my toothbrush all over the world, as I have many different adapters. I can also wire a plug.😎

My Renault Clio headlight bulbs were extremely hard to change 20 years ago, not going near my current car’s LEDs. Another old car was dead simple to change all bulbs, rear light cluster, exhaust etc

Debt and interest rates and loans are literally on the maths gcse. There’s an exam question every year.

the kids hate it because they don’t see it as useful to their life at the time, but it really is taught.

Most people look at YouTube for the knowledge (or ask Mumsnet). However, and this is something the EU are trying to tackle, most devices and implements around the house don't have a spare part supply available. Or are built in a way that they cannot be taken to pieces.

An example is my late father in laws black and decker wallpaper stripper which must be 30 years old, the power wire is damaged right where it goes into the machine. But it has special tork screws so it can't be taken to pieces. As I am fairly handy and do DIY and have done some handyman jobs professionally, I must have about 1,000 screwdriver bits... but none of that design...it's done deliberately to make you buy new

Completely agree OP. My dad taught me so many life skills, and as a teenager we all tinkered with cars. My ex is now teaching our son the basics of car maintenance (older car so it’s still possible to do a lot with it). DS phones me when his boiler breaks in his uni flat or the heating goes off and I talk him through what to look for. I’ve already shown him how to build up flat pack furniture so he can do that himself.
I bought a new electric toothbrush recently and it had a continental plug on the charging station so I cut it off, stripped the wires and added a 3 pin plug from the local pound shop so I could charge it up. Most people don’t have the first idea how to do this.

I’ve done wallpapering but I taught myself from the internet, my parents have never done it. Sometimes it comes down to mindset and need, I was a single mum and needed to save money.

I do all my DIY - have taught myself and learn through experience - purely out of necessity .
No one else to do it and can’t afford to pay anyone .

A lot of people now either can’t be bothered or choose to pay … nothing wrong with that either. Some people do more harm than good if they are poor at DIY!!

I never knew.

my parents didn’t teach me.

i’m 49

Thats an interesting point but I have paid far far less money on my mortgage over 20 years than my bestmate has in rent in a similar area and house. She will pay til she dies and I will pay my off by 54.
I am much better with money than her and my lifestyle has not funded landlords to get rich.

A lot of moms and dads now don't have those skills. They're both working and usually have commutes.

Also, some of the home electric work done in older homes by those diyers, ummm, it's like something out of a horror film. A lot of home diy is substandard because they're not professionals.

I think alot as been lost.