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.

My dad taught me how to wire a plug when I was about 12. He also taught me how to get a shine on chrome car bumpers, put up shelves, sharpen chisels, which screwdriver and screw to use when, how to clean a pond pump, hang wallpaper and paint gloss woodwork, how to sharpen a pencil with a penknife, grow potatoes, all sorts. I much preferred all that to my mum showing me how to knit, make curtains, do hospital corners when making the beds, make rice pudding, peel potatoes, darn socks, all that sort of thing as well. (We are talking the 1960's/70's by the way, which explains the division of labour). They both showed me how to do all of it.

I do wonder whether many people just don't do that sort of thing any more, so never end up teaching their children.

I wonder how many men are reading this list pondering their uselessness...

I can do all minus changing the oil as I’ve never tried.

to be honest… whenever you need to do any of that just YouTube a tutorial! :)

I found my people! 🤣🙃

Exactly. IME men never ponder their uselessness. They just expect women to pick up the slack of all the stuff they don't want to do.

See 'weaponised incompetence'.

Only three! 😶

Don't even know what a home network is if I'm honest😬

None, and I don't want to do any of them. That's what my staff are for.

I can do all except mend a toaster and change element in oven. Probably could those too if necessary but have never needed to do either.

I would say everyone should check their stop cocks and make sure they can be turned off not jammed shut googling won't tell you where to find it or how to move it if it's stuck.....and water pouring through your ceiling and electrics is pretty urgent and won't be the better for a 15 minute Google.

I like your list. It sparked an interesting convo with my husband about which things we both could not do.

I also agree that most women can’t do many of the things on there, such as changing a tyre. Most I know wouldn’t be able to.

Eight.

I can't do the three car ones as I don't drive so have never needed to. I wouldn't trust myself to change the element on the oven without some help.

I have successfully mended other small electricals so I'd have a go with the toaster, and the others I have all done.

I'd say I can do all but 1 but leave it to the DH as it makes him feel like a proper manly hunter type. I just smile and put my feet up.

Except for the last one. I can't turn the water off at the mains. Because no one has ever been able to find where this is in our house. And that includes a few plumbers. So they need to go out to the street and lift a hole cover and turn something off in there. Yes, I agree, it's ridiculous.

Add air to a tyre - me yes, DH yes
Change oil - me yes, DH yes
Change a wheel on your car - me no although have a vague idea how to, DH yes
Fix a bike puncture - me yes, DH yes
Put up shelving - me yes, DH yes
Change a plug adhering to all safety advice and best practice - me yes, DH yes
Put together a cabinet-size piece of flat pack furniture - me yes, DH yes
Set up a home network - me yes, DH yes
Diagnose problem and mend toaster - me no, DH yes, but is it worth it?
Change element in an oven - yes DH depending on the oven, me, yes if I had some instructions.
Sort out a fuse box if lights go off - yes for both me and DH
Turn off water at mains in case of leak - yes for both me and DH.

Me 10/12 mainly because I don't drive so don't really know about cars, DH can do 12/12, but says he probably wouldn't mess with the toaster or the oven just in case of it invalidating home insurance due to potential electrical safety issues.

To be honest I’d just bin the toaster

I know where mine is but a 5 second Google is enough for people to bring up a picture of what they’re looking for. I’ll never have mains water coming through the ceiling nor will most of my neighbourhood as our houses have the bathrooms downstairs, like so many other Victorian houses.

I can do all of these. I used to be a single parent and lived on my own for a while. I once drove out to where my son had broken down and taught him to change a tyre at the roadside.

But I wouldn't bother to fix a toaster now. I would just get another and most plugs are sealed so you can't change them easily.

It's also the sort of list men trot out to explain why they don't put their mug in the dishwasher " But I change all the flat tyres we get on a daily basis!"

@Dargawn have done all except change a wheel! can repair washing machines, tile bathroom walls and floors perfectly, lay wooden floor, paint and decorate, even repair the old fuse in the out of date fuse box we used to have! change electric sockets and phone sockets too.

Add air to a tyre - yes
Change oil - no. I can check it but a change is done as part of the service
Change a wheel on your car - no, not that I have a spare wheel
Fix a bike pucture - no
Put up shelving - no
Change a plug adhering to all safety advice and best practice - no
Put together a cabinet-size piece of flat pack furniture - no, I wouldn't have the patience.
Set up a home network - possibly
Diganose problem and mend toaster - I'd send it back to Dualit
Change element in an oven - no but the oven insured so I'd call them out
Sort out a fuse box if lights go off - flip the switch yes, anything more no
Turn off water at mains in case of leak - yes but the stop cock is under slabs so I probably wouldn't be able to lift them

This has reminded me
I was once asked by a neighbour to put air in her tyres- I took her in her car to the garage and showed her how.
We got back and she said when will you next do it? I replied you can do it now. She said oh no I could not go to that garage (0.5miles away) as I am not confident turning right when driving.

This scared me to death and left me with images of her driving in left handed circles.

She later put £20 through my letterbox with her car keys asking me to fill up the car.

I posted it back saying I was busy fill it yourself.
We have moved now but her car sits unused on the street outside her house and she pays a garage to drive it once a month.

She is not elderly or infirm.

Always happy to show people but not really wanting to audition as staff

My internal stop cock was jammed the external one was no longer under the cover....ground movement...thanks council tree....if I hadn't found out about the internal one when water flooded through to my kitchen we would have been swimming and not able to drain down as the external one wouldn't have been available either so turning on all taps wouldn't have stopped anything. I'm pretty sure the ground flooding in your downstairs bathroom would cause serious damage anyway

It's easy to turn it off from the street and yes there is a YouTube video that I have successfully followed!

All of them 🤷‍♀️
why wouldn’t I be able to?

Don't be disingenuous.