People who can't do very basic household tasks.

[Careofcell44]

I've seen a couple of posts on my local social media for people asking for recommendations for someone to come and change a lightbulb and put a new plug on a kettle, it emerged in the coments that these people just didn't know how.
Now someone has set up a business doing basic tasks but he was asked about going to silicone a bath and decline because that was beyond him.
Obviously some people have disabilities and other limitations but I'm surprised at adults who can't do simple tasks, especially with YouTube videos.

Sorry haven’t rtfs but when do you need to change a plug? I know how (from school - also little but of card that they come with) but when do you need to change the whole plug rather than just put in another fuse? Or is that what people mean by changing a plug. Honestly I can’t think about any thing else now!

But I have hired (totally lovely but completely inept) handyman to do some super basic things like putting up a shelf and hang a cupboard on a wall that was just beyond our drill. It was worth the money because my husband was totally terrified of ALL household tasks and I am a bit nervous of power tools but very happy to tackle anything else (barring electrics). We weren’t getting round to a lot of small jobs and it was getting on my nerves. Watching what a cock up a professional made of things must have helped because we bought a new drill and are now halfway through installing a kitchen ourselves. It’s confidence and time. Oh an possibly the culture in builders yards and DIY superstores - in the latter hard to get proper advice or buy just the part you need and the former can be intimidating if you very obviously don’t know what you are doing. But YouTube really helps with that. Still wish we had DIY stores like the do in Australia though - enormous, can take your time and examine every part. Sorry off topic!

One problem is that these days, DIY electrical repairs are just not encouraged, except by a "qualified electrician". Even Homebase staff can't remove discontinued lights from their displays, because they have to get an electrician in to do it. Also the Health and Safety goalposts are always moving. An electrician told my parents "I'll gladly rewire your entire house to get it up to modern standards, but it will be out of date in a year or two".

But isn't 'get a qualified electrician in to do even the simplest job' just another ridiculously over cautious piece of advice that everyone just ignores anyway?

Being old fogies from make do and mend families, both DP and I know how to change plugs, fuses etc and the first thing either of us would do with an apparently dead appliance is try the different combinations of fuse, plug socket etc to identify the fault and mend it in most cases.

I also had to remove and refit a plug in our new kitchen because the plug socket for the fridge was inside the adjacent kitchen unit and there was only a tiny gap that a wire but not a plug could pass through. Removing and refitting the plug after passing the wire through the gap negated the need to get out the big drill to drill a big hole in the side of the shiny new kitchen units making a great deal of noise and dust in the process.

Although we were saying that the popularity of ring pull tins may lead some people to struggle to use tin openers when we had a ring pull can of tuna for the first time just the other day.

But TBH, when I buy more tuna I will be looking for can opener style tins, because it's just so much easier to squeeze the water out than one with a ring pull type top.

I think sometimes people don't realise how simple things are. E.g. rewiring a plug. I learnt the theory of it in Physics at school but never did it. I never needed to do it, or saw it being done, and had mentally filed it under "scary electricity could be dangerous if done wrong".
Until my boyfriend rewired a plug to change an EU socket to a UK one on some speakers. and it was dead simple. And now I'd feel confident youtubing it if I ever needed to!

DIY I have just never really done. I'm sure I could youtube it and manage it but there is at least SOME skill to doing a good job and I'd generally rather get a professional to do it than do a hash job myself and muck up my walls drilling, smear sealant on my tiles, etc. Fortunately DP disagrees with this and is pretty competent so is slowly teaching me!

My control freak personality has definitely driven my skill level. If I want something done I do do it myself...

I would imagine suffering from vertigo, being unsteady on your feet or having brittle bones might be reasons that changing a lightbulb might be difficult.

Arthritis might make it difficult to handle a screwdriver. With modern all-in-one plugs you would need to cut and strip cable to reword a plug which isn’t easy without the right tools. It’s easier to snap the thin copper than not, if you don’t do this often.

If you don’t know that there are different types of lightbulbs it could be tricky to work out why one with pins doesn’t just unscrew, or the screw in one isn’t popping out. I’ve seen bulbs rusted into place too.

I can do these things because I learned how to. But there are lots I can’t do and don’t know how to. When I was young learning to see on buttons and darn socks made economic sense as the time spent on the task was worth the saving. Now it would cost more to buy buttons and thread than a new shirt.

I also would hesitate to silicone a bath, or plaster a wall or paint someone’s nails because I’m not particularly good at these things.

we never learnt to wire a plug at school. I wouldn't know where to start but I reckon with the help of a youtube video id manage it. In reality id just ask DP to do it.

Changing a lightbulb I can do, however couldn't do it in the old house as the ceilings were so high they required a platform ladder to reach the fittings thankfully our current house is more modestly sized! made for hobbits

I can paint/sand/steam wallpaper and me and dp built a fence out of pallets so I reckon i'm ok in the grand scheme of things!

actually though doing the silicone on a bath is REALLY hard. Wouldn't attempt it again!

I consider myself to be quite handy but I am not keen on using a drill.

I can turn my hand to most things. I've laid 3 laminate floors and changed lights etc.

I did try and silicone a bath. Never again. LOL It looks fucking easier than it is. So he was right to say no.

Smallhorse

I had a friend, a doctor, who could not sew badges onto her son’s cubs/scouts top. I used to do it for her.

She genuinely had no idea how to sew

I am going extremely sceptical about this. I know a male doctor who can sew - basic repairs to clothes, badges on tops for DC etc.

He told me that he learnt how to sew in medical school - he was taught how to stitch wounds as part of his medical training, and transferred that stitching knowledge to sewing clothes when the need arose.

I think it’s far more likely that your doctor friend just doesn’t like sewing and finds it more convenient to get other people to do it for her.

We wired plugs in my first science class at secondary school

bLue to the Left
bRown to the Right (usually around the fuse)
and yellow and green up to the top.

My kitchen spotlights are a bastard to change.

They are 2 pin, I even bought a suction tool to aid removal of bulbs.
Load of shit that is too

robrobinson and hopegarden

The non sewing doc was an anaesthetist , not much call for sewing there.

And suturing a wound is a completely different technique.

Not really a CF. When she expressed alarm about not being able to sew I happily offered. I LOVE sewing .

She was incompetent at other things too! Couldn’t ride a bike and was generally clueless about a lot of stuff.

I'm not manually dexterous but was taught to change a plug in the days when appliances came without, and lightbulbs too, except one which requires unscrewing the fitting above your head. At the top of a ten foot ladder ( very high ceilings) . I get my lovely DIY man to do those and recently replaced them with ones that will last for 10,000 years or something.

All cleaning outsourced. Can do it but too boring. Never buy anything that needs ironing. Can do v basic sewing repairs but not neatly.

No DIY or painting . Finicky attention to detail not my thing. So self assembly stuff fills me with horror. Also installation new devices .

Self taught and rather good cook.

Learning about veg gardening.

All this talk of lightbulbs made me think of that episode of 'One Foot in the Grave' where Mrs Warboys is talking about a one handed man she knows changing a lightbulb.

Victor: You can't change a lightbulb with one hand
Mrs Warboys: You can if you've still got the receipt

Smallhorse, retired anaesthetist here, and er yes, we do have to stitch things at work! Ask your friend how on Earth she fixes central venous lines and arterial lines into patients if she doesn’t stitch them?!

DIY is not my forte, although I can paint a room, change a bulb and so on. My career means that I’m in a position to outsource all the maintenance / DIY stuff to a handyman / plumber / electrician. I find it boring and prefer to do other stuff in my free time. Delegation is the key!

I still remember my first day at uni, buying a kettle and discovering it had no plug (you had to put your own on in those days.) I had no idea. Some science student along the corridor came and helped me out. He was disgusted that I could have got that far in life without knowing how to put on a plug. He taught me and I've never forgotten how.

I nearly posted on Mumsnet yesterday evening about how to,change a lightbulb. It was a bayonet one and seemed wedged in. I didn't want to force it in case it broke and I cut my hands

I don't know how to change a plug - but it's not something I have needed.

I do not know what's meant by silicon OMG a bath.

A handyman on my local Facebook page advertises 5 small jobs for £50.

He has a list of what constitutes a small job. Things like changing a plug, hanging a picture, changing a lightbulb (I assume in a difficult fitting- I know my bathroom one is a pain to change) etc. He seems to be constantly busy with customers.

I did the silicone on my bath, what a bloody mess but it is watertight 😁 looks like i just chucked the silicone at it and ran away

Babdoc (and others who've commented on doctors/sewing) - they are completely different types of sewing! Yes, both involve a needle and thread, but if you sewed Cub/Brownie badges on with a couple of interrupted single stitches and some hand-tied knots they'd look bloody awful!

I only learnt very basic suturing at med school - interrupted, single bite either side, hand- or instrument-tied knots. I can also do some very basic sewing from having been in Guides myself - putting on buttons, sewing on badges etc, and a bit of embroidery. Not a lot of crossover!

How to wire a plug is on the GCSE physics curriculum

Like how to play a 78rpm record, I guess.

I'm old enough to remember when appliances were largely sold without a plug, and you had to fit one yourself (because a few houses still had 15A round-pin plugs, I guess). That's not been true for, what, twenty years? And good: BS1363 plugs aren't easy to wire safely and even if they are fitted correctly, essentially no-one ever got the fuse right (it would have been better had plugs been sold with 1A fuses to force you to change them, but that ship has sailed). I've also fitted 16A and 32A connectors and dabbled with three-phase, so my wiring skills are fine, thanks: moulded plugs with pre-installed fuses are safer in every imaginable way, and I can't think of a scenario in which fitting a new plug isa necessary or desirable thing to do.