Things you can’t believe your teenager doesn’t know

[Annoyingwurringnoise]

My teenage DS, who went to a Church of England primary school, does not know the song Little Donkey. I am utterly perplexed as to how this can possibly be. He’s been a donkey twice in nativity plays, once at preschool and once at school, but he swears he doesn’t remember Little Donkey.

What things have you found out your teenagers don’t know that’s just left you scratching your head in disbelief?

Being able to tell the time and understand time is vital.

I remember someone in my A level history class asking how the Indians got to America.

Mine thought the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Phillip were brothers.

*which might have been an interesting question if he hadn’t then made clear that he meant Indians from India.

Asked my teenagers to buy me a cauliflower. They came home after trailing through three supermarkets to report incredulously that all three “just had cabbages in the cauliflower section”! How I laughed.

The blue blood in veins is because it is deoxygenated and on its way back to the heart. The blood in arteries looks bright red as it is oxygenated and on its way from the heart to travel around the body. Oxidisation is a different thing. I only did O’level Biology and can understand that.

Have you heard of Mr Beast? No, well you’re stupid then as he has 120 million subscribers on YouTube

what about Ninja? Over 18million followers on Twitch

Addison Rae? - 38m Insta followers

kids/ teenagers/ young adults don’t care about Cameron Diaz and Bruce Willis as they’re just old people not in their world

and as for the Lord‘s Prayer - when would that ever ever come in useful in a country now classed as secular

That is so true. My young adult kids have no interest in anything older than about 5 years. I’ve tried to get them interested in general knowledge over the years and we will sometimes do quizzes but in comparison my general knowledge at their age (and much younger) was Mastermind level!

Agreed!!!

That may be @Shadope but it’s part of our history and culture. Do you know nothing about anyone that existed before you were born?

Yes and no.
DD really struggles with traditional clocks, but is ok with digital. As a whole she is quite vague with time. It is part of her SpLD. But she gets by. There are other things that cause her far more issues than this.
So I guess it depends on what else you are assuming as a baseline. Though I do agree that I would expect a typical teen to manage it just fine.

My dd is 15 and is dyslexic she can't tell the time on an analogue clock

That’s funny because whenever I’m astounded when mine know some old music they invariably say “it’s from Shrek”! Thank you Shrek for at least educating some of them in music 😁

@jmh740 she has good reason .

I recall my brother at about 16 and starting an apprenticeshoip asking Dad where he went to say he didn't want to join Income Tax or National Insurance.

When I was teaching Computer Studies years ago my class had to write a program and one boy did a simple program for working out wages from hourly rate, working hours, income tax etc., it was very good but had one tiny flaw. He added the income tax in at the end, we did suggest he got a job working for the education department which paid us.

I think we should make a collective list of the general knowledge every 13 - 18 year old should know. Reading this it’s clear we need to subject them all to this Mumsnet exam of life before they can contribute to society 🤪

I’ve heard of Mr Beast! That is all social media though. How is your general knowledge outside of SM?

You don’t have to ‘care’ about stuff to be aware of it. It’s the lack of awareness of anything outside of SM that is so jarring.

A sign of intelligence is curiosity and it’s worrying how many younger people lack any curiosity outside their own little bubble.

@Benjispruce4 of course I do. But I probably wouldn’t know some 1950’s actor who’d retired.

analogue clocks, post boxes, stamps. These are all just things of a dying era. People don’t like to think about it as it shows time marches on and we all die!

My DD got her first job aged 17 in a pub. She had to go and complete a form which asked for Next of Kin. She had no clue what it meant and had to ask the landlady!😂

@BellePeppa I’d never heard of any of these people as I’m 46. I just googled them as a way to show that times move on. The kids are laughing at you (us) and vice versa

I took Economics at school, aged 15, and was absolutely incensed when we were taught about tax! I didn’t mind the NI so much because it seemed fair, but tax to me was legalised robbery by the government

Totally agree with @BellePeppa about curiosity.

To be honest, I endured both CofE and Methodist Sunday School and we never 'did' David and Goliath.

Times do move on but that doesn’t mean we should only know what is in our own time frame. As I said before it’s the lack of curiosity of anything outside their own little world that I find astonishing. Lack of curiosity is a very negative trait in my books.

Tbf my mother (aged 54) thought there was a bloke called Harry Krishna.