‘Adult’ stuff you just can’t do

[EmilyDeservedBetter]

I’ve managed to reach the grand old age of 30 and still, no matter how much I try I cannot:

• keep white towels white! All my other white linen and clothes etc. stay white but the towels also seem to look so scruffy after a few washes. Therefore we are only allowed dark towels in this house.

• sew. I’ve tried and tried. Had dm sit me down to show me, followed YouTube videos, tried online reading. Nope - if I had to save my own life attaching a button to a piece of clothing I would be done for.

• command with my voice. Growing up dm used to be able to stop me in my tracks with a firm ‘no’ this is not a talent she has passed on. I can’t even get the bloody in laws dog to leave a room so no chance with my DC when they grow up

What ‘adult’ things can you just not do?

I can't sew and couldn't care less . We have white towels, I bung a scoop of napisan in the wash, they come out sparkling. I'm ace at folding a fitted sheet, it's easy when you figure it out. Sorry about the not great video but this is how I do it m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=90&v=YHTyH2nuFAw

Drink tea
Make phone calls
Make chit chat
Remove spiders without hoovering them up
Know what to do in a power cut
"Know" recipes - I google if I want to cook something new!
Drive

I can sew and change a bed though, maybe we need to outsource things to each other? I'm quite happy to do everyone's sewing if they make phone calls for me!

I can't put on false eyelashes
Grow my fingernails
Say particularly
knit or crochet or
drive

poster toomuchisneverenough that’s a good thing! Once you realise how delicious it is you are sunk. Hence all the threads on here about women that drink bottles of the stuff a week.

I struggle to talk to adults like adults. I still feel too young to talk to talk to people my own age ( 50) And adults in their 30’s I have nothing to say to...they are sooo young. I sort of see why people my age don’’t mind the older generation when ” old” people were an anathema 10 years ago.

Opal, I'm with you. I'm still in my teens as far as these are concerned - the odd visit to the hairdresser takes me weeks of planning and convincing myself I need to go, and make-up has remained the same for 35 years. I also feel like an infant when faced with beauty counters and those women who work there and have never visited a beautician or pedicure/manicurist - couldn't cope. It all makes me feel inadequate. How do other women do it?

Put tops on the right side in/way round. Even when I check and sometimes even turn them round I'm still inside out/back to front.
I could give all you bra novices a masterclass though...

I've never been able to blow up a balloon.

Keep a house tidy. Everything's everywhere, because I have more interesting things to do (or even less interesting but more urgent things to do.) Remember to take medicine when I' m not actually hurting or erupting from any orifice but I ought to take it (I can go weeks or even months not 'seeing' the packet on the kitchen counter, and then start feeling a bit ill again and remember then that I ought to take the medicine.)

Understand economics, like mortgages, compound interest, financial products like those proper adults wax on about on Moneybox.
I can submit a tax form every year, generally pay bills , but something about the bigger stuff scares me.

I also fail at parallel parking. Every now and then I think I’ll take a driving lesson and just learn it. But so far I’ve not booked it.

31 here and I can't sew, knit or iron. Can't swim, drive or ride a bike. Do not understand mortgages or loans. Can't do my hair without it looking like hagrids or paint my own nails. I can however cook, bake and keep whites whites, grind up an aspirin and mix with apple cider vinegar and chuck it in the drum.

Understand politics
Sew
Anything garden wise although I can keep house plants alive fairly well
I can knit if you want a scarf but nothing complicated

Iron
Meal prep lunches consistently
Cook evening meals consistently without just saying sod it and going out or ordering a take away

So basically I'm in no way shape or form a domestic goddess haha

I can not fry an egg or make an omelette. I can scramble.
I can not make a cake.

Eat or drink without spilling it on me somewhere...it's worse if it's, you know, red spaghetti or curry sauce or oil of any kind....Strangely I'm okay with plain water...

To be fair, I think a lot of the things we "can't" do are things that we're not interested in - so we just haven't done them enough to become competent. I'm sure if we applied ourselves we could manage it.

I would be interested to know what people have tried and failed to do. As a child I desperately wanted to be able to do decent handstands and cartwheels but despite trying I was always terrible

Gardening. I envy people who have the time and know how to create and maintain gorgeous gardens.

That said, we spend far too much time doing ourselves down. So...

I make a fabulous omelette.

I also cant drive. I couldnt even start a car and ive watched it being done a zillion times. Also cant knit, can just about sew.

@Opal71 how could I forget that? I've never been able to do make up or hair, either. I actually spent quite a lot of time studying up on make up and invested in some fancy, well reviewed stuff, got all the tools for all the jobs... but I've never gotten beyond looking like a 3yo did my face in the dark.

I genuinely have no clue what looks good or what I'm supposed to look like "done up" - either hair or make up. My hair is a confusing mess of all different lengths, always just tied back from my face, because I simply cannot fathom what it should look like.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I don't know how to dress like a Lady or a Professional either. At least with clothes I can study trends, designers, etc., and TRY, but then I still have the problem of simply having no idea what looks right on my own body.

I'm so hopeless that I have recently very seriously considered hiring somebody to sit down and teach me all these fashion/appearance things. If I could find somebody to walk me through a uni course, I would. I'm lost at sea on my own.

I am not the best at adult-ing, but I'm bloody useless at woman-ing!

I can’t use the phone except at work where I very occasionally have to. Ringing to make an appointment or book a table sends me into a cold sweat, and I have to write down a sort of script. The script is only helpful if the person on the other end can do what I want with no issues. Can I please book an appointment with X on Friday, yes, no problem, what time, is fine, X is on holiday, would you like to see Y, not so much.

Also, I can’t get to grips with the clocks changing, which is a running joke with (separately) my colleagues, and my DP. Where does the hour go?

Ha ha well I can definitely put a bra on properly and I make a good omelette so I feel better instantly! 😂 I can’t blow up a balloon though... no idea why!

I can't measure up for curtains. I just don't get it so I get the shop to come out and do it so it's not my fault.
I seem incapable of buying the correct lightbulb first time.
I can blow a balloon up but I can't do the knot.
I recently went to play Bingo for the first time. I was baffled. I was doing it on the tablet as I was told it was easier but I had a headache with the stress of it all and had no clue what was going on the whole time.

Drive a car
Knit
Assemble furniture (seriously, I'm crap, I can't make head nor tail of the instructions and don't even know where to start)

Keep the house tidy - I can manage a couple of rooms at a time
Prevent paperwork multiplying into heaps
Judge with any accuracy how long things take
Be on time
Drive on motorways - I used to...
Put eye liner on the top lid
Not well up when I feel emotional
Do things that bore me until they are urgent it's too late
Go to bed on time on Sunday nights

Although just reading through the comments, just shows we're all different as I'm completely incompetent in some ways when it comes to being an adult but I'm an ace baker and love baking bread and cakes etc
We all have our own talents and weaknesses , apologies if that sounds soppy but it's true lol

I can’t make scrambled eggs, mop, put a bra on properly, book a holiday, open letters that look like bills. And more...