Really obvious things you didnt teach your child (Lighthearted)

[Unorganisedchaos2]

Lighthearted, please don't come for me; I honestly do all the homework, reading etc just had a massive blind spot and looking to feel better.

DD6 had some homework this week to do her immediate family tree, lovely, she drew a big tree and we printed off some photos of everyone and it became clear that DD had absolutely no idea how all the random adults in her life were related 😅

She has a pretty typical set up 4 grandparents, 1 GGparent, 2 sets of 1 aunt and uncle and a couple of cousins, who we mix with at least weekly. I thought referring to my Mum as "Mum" for the past 6 years would have helped her make the connection but apparently not, bless her.

Anyway, it was an interesting learning activity and I think she's mostly grasped it now so no harm done ...right?

My mums got a bone handled knife with a chunk out of the blade where db did exactly that. Can’t remember the rest of it though and he’s still alive 50 odd years later.

Also reminds me of taking my ND son to stay with a friend who lived in a flat, when he was about four, and he asked in astonishment "but where are the stairs?"

I work in a secondary school and have had this.

Also one asked to speak to a parent (I'm in the medical room) and had no idea how to use a landline.

The most common thing kids don't seem to be taught is resilience.

DD was told to sit ‘crossed legged’ at story on her first day of school. She came out crying because she had been told off for not doing what she’d been asked to do! She didn’t know how to sit crossed legged!

Mine forgot to tell me my religion. It came up when they suggested a faith school for my high school application.

That Santa leaves the house after dropping off the presents.

Our toddler first born ran excitedly down the stairs on Christmas Day, stopped dead in the living room in front of a big pile of presents and looked really, really miserable. I asked him what was wrong and he said sadly, ‘where is Santa?’

My DD had to do a family tree recently and it was so bog standard, no room for a blended or less than typical family tree so I made one on canva and was probs a bit PA about it.

DD knew exactly how we all fit in together and she didn’t understand that what she’d been given just wouldn’t work because it wasn’t “typical”

My mum realised I didn't know how to hail a bus when I came home at 16 really annoyed that two had driven past me (semi rural so this had meant standing at the bus stop for an hour).

I obviously had no observation skills as a child and had never noticed other passengers sticking out their arm to stop the bus. I just thought they stopped at every stop with people waiting.

I told my ex husband that news & he was 42 …

My kid got to the age of 13 before we discovered he thought nuns were called moths

I was reading some social media chat about how some younger people answer the phone now - ie they will accept the call and stay silent until the caller says "hello."

And in doing that I realised I'd never taught my kids basic phone etiquette and DS2 (age 9) has never answered a phone.

Growing up you were ALWAYS answering the phone so how to do it properly was really ingrained in us. Now that just about everyone has a personal device there's no opportunity for this.

This is a sad one. Some years ago an elderly colleague was widowed. I went round to see her for lunch one day and found her in despair. She didn’t understand how to pay bills, in those days it was a sit down with a cheque book and the paper bill , put them in an envelope and post them off job.. Her father had paid the bills when she lived at home, her husband had paid the bills when she married and she had no idea what to do. Luckily she had a cheque book and money in the account. She had two adult children who didn’t live at home and had assumed she knew.

My dd asked if the world was black and white when I was a child.

I taught my kids my phone number and they could all recite it. One of them got lost, asked for help then was shocked when the lady dialled my number and I answered her call. He knew what a phone was and that I sometimes got calls but until that moment, didn’t understand why I taught them my number.

My DS was about 12 when we were at a country park and a deer did a big poo right in front of us.

DS was astounded and blurted out "It's got a hole it its bum!"

My sister kindly informed him that he has got a hole in his bum as well.

Great response - given all the complicated family dynamics about these days it is pretty short-sighted and slightly mean to provide kids with a rigid template as if their family is in some way 'wrong'!

I used to work in DC school, but not directly with DC. Once DD saw me say hello to a teacher and she asked me if it was my teacher.

She thought I was a student at the school. In that moment I realised my children have no idea about my job or what I do when I‘m not with them!

My parents never taught me:

Don't put your finger inside a light fitting to try and work out how the bulb goes in.

Don't drink from a glass lined thermos flask of hot chocolate if it has previously fallen off your bike onto the road.

Don't stick your tongue up the bath tap just because the cat does it and it looks like fun.

Don't close a car door with your fingers on the inside.

Don't go shoe skating on a superficially iced over pond in Lancashire.

Don't try to make friends with a mole.

Don't go wandering on building sites for, "Executive Homes" looking for timber you can steal to make trotting poles for your pony.

Don't try to burn through hay and straw bale twine with a cigarette lighter.

The list is endless, really.

I’m so pleased to read this! (Not pleased for your daughter, obviously 😄 but pleased I’m not the only one!)

My parents were a) utter slaves to the car - to the point that my mum would drive to the postbox at the bottom of the street - and b) convinced that Trouble with a capital T lurked around every corner for a young girl. Therefore, until I was 16 when I went to college instead of sixth form, I’d been driven to and from everywhere.

I trotted off to get the 96 bus on day one, stood and waited - then looked on in a panic when I saw the 96 go the wrong way. I ran home (no phones to check on then!) and said we must have been told the wrong details; the 96 goes from Longley, not towards it. My mum thought this was hilarious and that I was a complete idiot, but when I asked HOW I was supposed to know that, I got a vague “Well, it’s common sense, isn’t it?”

Except it isn’t really, if you think about it. If you want a bus from Fenchurch to Longley, why would you assume, if you hadn’t been told and hadn’t been on the bus since you were a toddler, that the opposite journey would have the same number? Thinking back now, my mother grew up in a house where no one had a car or even a licence - I bet she didn’t discover through sheer osmosis that you need road tax and annual MOTs .

On the time thing…

We went on a European coach tour about 10 years ago and our group was watching one of those lovely old town square clocks where the figures start marching round on the hour. It turned out that the four American ladies on the tour didn’t know how to tell the time so had no idea when that would be. They were all teachers in their fifties.

My 13 year old does this! Drives me mad. I tell her all the time you need to say hello! So I know you've picked up. Also puts everything phone call on speaker no matter where she is or if she can hear me.

I remember being absolutely shocked that my mum had an actual name and wasn't just 'mum' 🤣 then it took even more years to be able to spell her name even though its only 5 letters.

Awww. That reminds me of when DD was about 3, she used to reach up and tuck my top in for me, with the words... 'tucky ring mummy, tucky ring.'

I’ve heard the advice before that you shouldn’t say “hello” if you don’t recognise the number. Anyone genuine is likely to speak if you don’t, whereas a cold caller or scammer who is dialling multiple numbers at once moves on to a caller who did say “hello”.

My friend used to live in Alaska and some of the things she heard from (usually American) tourists there was hilarious. Some of them also thought Alaska was an island because of a map like this but other things she overheard were:

People surprised the currency was in US dollars.

Someone coming off a cruise ship and saying “How high above sea level are we?”

Telling local workers they spoke “very good English”.

I know there were more which might come to me later but I can’t remember right now. I went to visit her a few years ago and sadly didn’t hear anything like that myself.

My dear late grandma ALWAYS used to answer the call with their number in clipped tones. Ie ‘01435610675?’

it’s the reason I can still recite her number even though I haven’t been able to call her since 2017 😔