Amazing ladies poll - how many of these 12 things can you do?

[Dargawn]

How many of these things can you do without assistance:

Add air to a tyre
Change oil
Change a wheel on your car
Fix a bike pucture
Put up shelving
Change a plug adhering to all safety advice and best practice
Put together a cabinet-size piece of flat pack furniture
Set up a home network
Diganose problem and mend toaster
Change element in an oven
Sort out a fuse box if lights go off
Turn off water at mains in case of leak

I can do none very confidently at the moment, but at a stretch might be able to do three.

I want to be able to do them all.

I can do all of these and more. I can put shelves up, wall paper, paint, lay tiles. Plumb in a washing machine. I was very lucky that my dad showed me all of this as a child and his rule was " show you once, watch you once and then you are on your own ". So I'm very confident with power tools and DIY. I could change a car tire at 14 as he says if he was going to teach me to drive( private property) I needed to know what do if I got a flat. He also taught me to cook, budget and all that. But I think naturally we both have a very inquisitive personality. We like to know how things work and are very much self taught in 99% of the things we can do. We love learning new things. My hobbies are extensive. But he's always been obsessed with music and boats..... my interest are vast and never ending. In reality we're both have ADHD/ASD

I can do them all and have before. I'm older and I just don't want to do some of these things anymore, and I just hire somebody to do it. much easier and better use of my time.

9.5/12. I've never owned a car, so little call for oil/wheel change, and while I'd have a go at the toaster I wouldn't guarantee the outcome

I can come up with lists.

Very few. I can turn the water off, and could probably do a flat-pack on my own if I needed to and could google for help.

Actually I could do quite a few of them with the help of google. However, I have very little desire to and am quite happy to pay someone else with the expertise.

I have other skills. They're not traditionally masculine skills, but that doesn't make them less worthwhile.

None of the above. I’ve seen the boiler man turn the water off so I know how to to.
I good at making random lists though.

I can do all of these and more. None are particularly difficult. To me and I imagine many other women this was all part of living independently and not having much money in my early 20s! 😂

Changing an oven element is so quick and easy it's laughable - what I thought might be a nightmare job was actually a doddle.

I used to buy old bangers when I needed a car as it was all I could afford. Cars were a lot simpler in the 90s so I often repaired things myself, broken radiator hoses, leaks etc. However, I never ever had my bonnet open more than 15 mins before a well meaning man would come along to 'offer advice' which was almost always unhelpful!

I can do some of them and have never needed to do the others but know where to find the information I need to do them. I'm a scientist so lots of experience of using bits of obscure kit so perfectly happy to do DIY type stuff if I need to. DH is less practical than me so I make him do some of these things.

A comparable list for an 'amazing man' would surely include the following life skills my Mum thought were important:

Bath a newborn baby
Make a roast dinner
Sew on a button
Iron a shirt
Write a formal reply to a wedding invitation
Debone a fish
Giftwrap a present
Hem a pair of trousers
Repot a pot plant
Clean an oven
Prune a rose

How would anyone NOT know how to switch off their water

I can do most of those things, but not how to change the oil on my car - that happens when it's serviced. I've learnt how to change the seal, the door lock and the brushes on a washing machine, to take the front of our dishwasher apart to unblock the air vent, and how to fit a loft ladder. All were pretty straightforward.

I can't change oil, and have no desire to learn.

And I've no idea about an element in the oven. I've changed a lightbulb in the oven and that was hard enough to get the cover off.

1

I can do 8. I don't drive and can't ride a bike (both due to balance /spatial awareness type issues related to nd)

None of the 8 that I can do are particularly difficult. I learned how to do most of them from YouTube tutorials

I could confidently do over half, pretty much all the at home stuff plus car stuff. Could YouTube the rest. I’d agree with a Pp that life is too short for fixing toasters. Also I have rac membership so I’d get them to change a tyre as it’s super hard to get nuts off with puny tools supplied. I also don’t like mending punctures so have bought puncture resistant tyres.

I can do all bar the toaster, oven and changing a tyre.

Oh, I've got another for men to learn: clean and dress a minor injury.

I can do most of those although some less well than others but I work in a job that means I can pay people to fix things or, if my toaster broke, I’d just buy a new one. Not sure those skills make women amazing though.

I have done all of them except for the toaster one. Never had a need to, so unsure if I could or not.

I am a hands on personal generally, and learnt a lot by just getting stuck in and giving things an ago.

All of them. Some I learned from my parents, some I've taught myself as an adult, but I'd say they're all fairly elementary skills that most people should be capable of.

I've done all except change an oven heating element. Rapid puncture repairs and inner tube changes, usually by the side of the road in the pissing rain, are my speciality. I have thumbs like molegrips.

A car oil change is a pretty major thing these days - you need to be able to jack the car up, put it on stands, have equipment like a drain tray and filter wrench. I don't think it's really an every day life skill. Checking and topping up the oil, especially if you have an older car, sure.

I'm totes amazeballs obvs anyway and I have done most of the list but the dirty car ones (change tyre/oil) I would rather pay someone else to do.
The toaster...there are only about 4 functional parts in a toaster and whilst I could identify what was broken, I wouldn't bother trying to fix it unless it was something as daft as a knob had fallen off or something had got stuck.
Heating element I would probably give a go.

I'm ashamed to admit I can't do any of them

Toasters are like many small household appliances: if they stop working, all you have to do is take them apart and put them back together again and they are very likely to magically start working again. With the added bonus that you will also learn how a toaster works. And have one little spring left over to add to the collection...

Don't be ashamed. Most things are not manufactured to be diy mended any more and you'd violate the warranty.

I'm sure you have many, many other essential skills both at work and at home that are only undervalued because they're usually done by women.

Random list, and I can do some, but just couldn't be arsed to do others. That's what handymen are for.

My first car (and a couple of subsequent MGB's) was a classic Morris 1100. I could do everything on that. Pump up the air suspension, remove and WD-40 the distributor and spark plugs when they got wet, often at the side of the road. Change tyres. Jump start without leads. Double declutch. De-rust, fill and paint holes in the bodywork. Re-chrome.

I can do most. But would much rather pay someone else to do a good job of it.