Is there something that you just cannot get to grips with, while others find it easy.

[Lytlethings]

For me, I have no sense of direction and cannot read a map or compass.

My family joke that I can get lost in my own house. When I go to a hotel, a toilet in a shopping centre or the like I have to verbalise the route. I say it over and over turn right, turn left etc. if DH is with me I sometimes forget and he watches with amusement as I try to figure out which way to go. SATNAV was the best invention ever for me.

I could never find my way back to a. Terminal or bus station in an unfamiliar place.

Well this thread has certainly made me feel less like I'm the only one that suffers from these things!

Driving terrifies me and I only do it when I have to, which is roughly every six weeks

Left and right

Maps

No sense of direction

Can't play an instrument or draw

This is embarrassing but I never learned to tie my laces or bows or anything like that. I'm in my 40s. Would never admit to anyone in real life. Didn't ask parents for help as was afraid to do that and of their reaction.

Struggle with reading maps, spatial awareness, anything to do with mathematics. Struggled to learn to read music even though I was actually performing some pieces to grade 8 level by my mind teens and performing in local festivals. Never had any issues with the written word though and could read fluently before I started reception class. Couldn't catch a ball, had terrible social skills. Took a long time to learn things like combing my hair, dressing myself . Might have been a confidence thing as my home life was not a happy one. Teachers couldn't understand why as I didn't seem to be unintelligent . I think they thought in was pretending to be thick on purpose. My parents certaintly did and I was punished for making mistakes. I did and up with a degree in law. Never did use it (long story) but I think this means I'm not stupid though I felt I was for a long time!

I am exactly like you op!

When dh and I were dating, I started taking him back to my flat and one day he showed me a quicker way to walk back to my own flat! I was dying inside.

I have this! I have to check the number plate before I can find my car and I'm always slightly surprised by the shape. Like your mum, I'm not bad with other things like plants and birds. It's just cars I can't "see".

Once, on a day out with a friend, I wandered back to her car and stood waiting for her to unlock it. Only I was standing next to a very large range rover type thing instead of the tiny smart car type thing we'd arrived in. She couldn't believe I'd made such a daft mistake, but in my defense, it was vaguely in the right part of the car park...

For me Vit D and a light box were a game changer - still feels awful at the time but less awful ..

Posting on social media.

I either overthink it or find it extremely nerve wracking but my friends and colleagues find it effortless and post everyday. Even if it’s just stories. I can’t seem to find it in me. After posting I feel soooo nervous!

Maths - don't get it can't do it

Why people can't answer simple questions without a 5 hour story or history lesson.

People saying if you like - "would you like a cuppa tea?" "If ya like!" Errr no if you like?! Ffs.

The fucker that is known as Microsoft Teams. I struggle with the bastard so much.

But how does one know it's north or south ( without a compass)? I always hate it when the satnav says" head north on the high street!! 😂

Same. I have been trying to learn French since I was ten, so almost 30 years now 😳 I try watching series and I can’t catch a bloody word. They swallow their words. I can pick up more words from an Italian series, they really enunciate. I find it so gutting because I have a lot of French genes and it’s my dream to understand the language.

(Also can’t swim!)

I can paint and draw quite well and enjoy it but I struggle to understand perspective. Most of the others in my painting class have no issues with it at all!

OMG, green and orange. I know the difference between them, I can see what colour they are but when I try to say the colour, the opposite word comes out of my mouth.

Same here. I learned to drive in 1985 when we weren't tested on either. I really wish we had been.

We should form a club 😂
I blame Google maps it keeps saying weird things like....start by heading north/south...I mean how am I meant to know those things. 😩

I can't take anything in if I'm reading aloud. If we had to take turns in reading a text at grammar school, c 1975, I could do it with aplomb; but then, like now, I realised the 'taking it in' circuit is disabled by reading aloud!

Odd.

Definitely drawing. I have a friend that can draw pretty good portraits using just a pencil. I’ve watched them do it and it looks ridiculously easy but when I try I end up with something that is about on a par with what my 3 year old produces.

But what way do you hold a compass...it keeps moving different directions 🤔

Ooh i love this thread... its making me feel unexpectedly competent! 🤣

My sense of direction isn't completely hopeless but only on single carriageways....as soon as there's anything complicated such as a one way system I panic. Same with motorway slipways and associated roundabouts. I'm terrified of ending up on a motorway by mistake or going the wrong way and not being able to turn around. Once I'm on a motorway, I don't use services because some of them are such a faff to get to with wiggly roads and roundabouts. Why can't they have multiple very large signs directing people back onto the motorway?

The other thing is following movements, even slow movements like tai chi. I can follow if someone is in front of me, facing the same direction. In the tai chi class I went to, everyone seemed to keep changing direction. I can't remember the movements either.

Maps, directions, maths I have no problem with!

Languages and musical instruments can’t do either have really tried as well!!

Same with sequences - so glad the iPhone remembers the one time codes as I can’t! Same with numbers if I have to copy an account number, I can’t remember it at all!!

Judging distances. Even when sat nav tells me it's 250 yards I still have to count how many turnings.

Learning languages. I have post grad qualifications, speak on platforms all the time, and am often complemented on my vocabulary, but even basic mastery of other languages eludes me. Husband, on the other hand, learned enough Italian in 6 months to have a private tour of a rural museum where the curator didn't speak English. He and the curator were conversing entirely in Italian.

Crochet. I can sew and have made evening dresses in the past but I cannot crochet a stitch. I've basically concluded that it's witchcraft.

@Butterworths Hi twin👋

I can't do that either. I have to fasten mine first and put it on over my head. Otherwise I risk my shoulders popping out of joint. I used to know someone who fastened hers up and put it on feet first and pulled it up that way. It wouldn't go past my arse if I tried doing that.

I'm terrible with names, to the point that it's embarrassing. I work at a busy round-the-clock transport terminal, and there are about 15 shift managers all on different schedules, so a different combination every day. Even though I've been introduced, I can't remember most of their names.

I could never be a teacher; I would give the poor children an inferiority complex when I couldn't remember their names.

I even go blank sometimes with people I've known for years.

Can't whistle, navigate (can use car sat nav ok) do cartwheel or handstand, climb a rope, hit any kind of ball with any kind of bat, can't really kick a ball properly either (rounders at school, never once hit it). Not great at verbal direction generally. Ah well.