What can your children do easily that you really struggled to learn yourself?

[ContessaferJones]

I thought this might be an interesting idea for a thread

DS1 is f*ing ASTONISHING at negotiation. He is almost 9 but has been developing these skills since the age of.... well, since he began to talk in sentences. He has just come in and asked for an extra 10 minutes of video game time, which he then graciously agreed to drop to 5 min. I thought we'd held a good parental line until I realised that the extra 5 minutes was his aim all along it would NEVER have occurred to me to do this at his age. I'd have said 'Can I have an extra 5 min' and stropped over the inevitable no! There are many other examples but this is the one that has just happened.

Please regale me with tales from your households (yes, I'm bored).

Negotiation, persistence/determination and making friends.

DS1 is far better at karaoke than me! I tend to be a beat ahead or behind of where I'm meant to be, whereas he is always bang on.

Rollerskating, riding bikes, swimming. I can't do any of those things.

My oldest has great perseverance and will work on a skill for months (years even) to achieve it, whereas my youngest and I are likely to give it up as a lost cause after the first day of failure!

Youngest is very talented at art. No idea where that comes from as everyone else in the family is awful!

Traversing monkey bars. I don't think I've ever been able to lift my own body weight, let alone actually swing on one arm!

Using scissors- I still couldn't in secondary school.
Can hold a tune as well. I don't mean that they're going on the Voice any time soon but I am the closest thing to being tone deaf without actually having the excuse of being tone deaf.

Eldest.. just pick a sport and csn play it and will probsbly be pretty good at it. Im pretty useless at any sport other than running

Cartwheels. I could never get my bum in the air lol

DD learned to ride her bike in about 2 hours and is a natural in the water and rapidly moved up levels in her swimming lessons.
She has grit and determination.
I don't.
She is also a whizz with technology.

DS is great at maths and has natural ability.
He also has a fantastic memory and can recall facts.

Knit! I cannot do it but my son ( 28) has knitted hats and cushions.
Both sons play the guitar too ; I've no idea!

Speak Welsh and be confident in their looks

Tell the time
Tell the difference between left and right

Good idea for a thread

Ds2 (9) can run really long distances without breaking a sweat or getting out of breath, it's completely effortless. He also doesn't give a shit about what other people think and will stick to his guns about anything. I'm naturally people pleaser and have had to train myself out of being a pushover. It was really hard! I admire his self-belief and firm boundaries.

Ds1 (12) can remember everything that he has ever read or heard in minute detail. I forget what I did yesterday....

Swim. I can swim but not very well. DC are both excellent swimmers.

DS1 is 4 and has a much better sense of direction/spatial awareness than I do.

He also loves kids science documentaries, at first I thought he had just memorised bits but then he explained air pressure and something about gas molecules to me completely correctly

DS2 is amazing at anything physical. He does gymnastics and trampolining. He learnt to ride a bike very easily. He is also brilliant at maths.

DS1 is lovely, gentle, kind and patient. That is equally excellent, but less surprising. His grandparents, dad and uncles are all great role models.