Simple things you can not do

[tomorrowchild]

Is there something that everyone else seems to be able to do with ease that you just can’t do?
I can not shuffle a pack of cards or whistle

I cannot roll my ‘r’s.

Make friends. I've never had friends. I'd love friends, I really try, I think i'm a nice person, i'm very chatty and love talking to people, but no one seems to ever want to be more than an acquaintance. I am so envious of people who have a best friend or even a group of friends! I don't know why I can't manage it, but I always end up making a tit of myself by asking people if they want to go for coffee or whatever and I get turned down. It's my 40th next year and I don't have a single person who would want to celebrate with me other than my husband and children. I know people who have gone on lovely girls holidays for their 40th, or had big parties (not that i've ever been invited to!), and I wish that so much for myself. I've only ever been invited to one wedding that wasn't a family wedding, never been a bridesmaid or gone on a hen do or anything.

It actually makes me really sad, but I guess it's unlikely to change now, it's clearly a skill I don't have!

@Amandatelly nor me! My family used to make me say it when I was a little girl so that they could laugh about it 😢

Crochet. I just cant get the hang of it.

Any chance you’re in London? There’s a coffee shop I want to try and would be much more fun to go with a new friend!

@Pumpkinsandpeanuts I am exactly the same, have lots of acquaintances, get on well with lots of people (I think!), but don't have any real friends.

Ah that's so kind of you, but i'm sadly not near London! I hope you get to try the new coffee shop though, a new one opened near me recently and I went with my son, which was lovely, but i'd very much like a coffee and a cake with another adult sometimes!

It's rather frustrating isn't it?! I feel like I get on well with most people, but when I try to develop a relationship further, it doesn't work for some reason? I'm not trying to move in with them, I just want to go for coffee/a walk/the cinema or something with someone other than my family!

Work whilst I have young child / family life to run.
I see other people ‘managing’ it and I just cannot! I literally cannot cut myself in two and having childcare is so much extra admin to organize I just do not have the bandwidth. I have no family near so would have to employ someone and well, I live in France. It’s an administrative shambles. I do not know how other women manage and don’t have breakdowns. I am not capable of this modern overwhelming challenge!!

I can't drive
I have no sense of direction at all
I can't roll my Rs
I can't understand game instructions

Hula hoop.

I can't rollerskate. Been many years since I tried and I have no intention of trying again now so I will just have to be denied that skill.

Are you me? I’m exactly the same with spiders, and have zero sense of direction. I can’t even work out which rooms upstairs in our house are directly above which downstairs rooms. If I try and follow a map I will instinctively try and go the exact opposite way to the correct direction.

At that age I think everyone is busy juggling work, kids, family, marriage ... It's tough to find time for yourself let alone actually socialising. I have a friend like you describe but she was single until she was in her mid 40s so she never lost her friends through the whole marriage and kiddie stuff.

When you get older still, old friends and new acquaintances and, indeed, your grown up kids, will reach out to you with invitations and suddenly your social calendar will get to the point where you'll find yourself booking a spontaneous holiday to get away from them all. 🤣

It's just the age and circumstances you're in, happens to most of us, relish your husband and family and be happy for your 40th.

Start a strimmer (as in pull the cord thingy and switch it on!!), whistle and yes, shuffle cards!!!

edited to add actually a lot of other things- but jumping out at the mo is my painting skills are awful (streaky)- everyone I know are painting rooms and I’ve tried one wall in the past and it looked awful!!

I can’t walk fast. If I try I feel like I am going SO fast and my husband and daughter just whiz past me laughing. I don’t get how to make my legs go quicker without running.

Recognise people out of context. I can chat to someone one day, then pass them in the street the next day. If they speak to me I have no idea who they are.

Follow written instructions for games, especially card games. Show me and I get it!

I have no sense of direction. Really struggle to grasp where I am 🤣

Wink
Dance

Roll my ‘r’s
Ride a bike
And for the last few months, sleep at night.

I can't follow or give someone else directions.

Oh the worst thing in the world is when someone asks how you got somewhere, I used to work with a woman who has seemingly memorised the entire roadmap of the UK, and I’d dread a Monday morning when she’d ask what I’d done at the weekend. As it would then be followed by 30 minutes of ‘and did you take the A37 and the A40 and the B322 to get there’ and I’d say I don’t know Pamela, I just followed the satnav, I don’t know the names of roads every.single.week

Same 😰

For those of you who can't roll their Rs, someone told me to put my tongue behind my front teeth and try to purr like a cat. It took lots of practice but I can now roll my Rs like that when I speak Spanish. When I speak French, I roll my Rs somewhere else in my mouth.

I only got the hang of blowing my nose in my 40s, much to DH's amusement

Follow verbal instructions

Follow a sat nav even by looking at the screen

Tell left from right (without looking at my hands and rhyming 'you write with your right, and your left is your left' from a kids tape I would listen to in the car 30 odd years ago 😅)

Drive forward into a parking bay, always have to reverse

Whistle (could do before I had braces!)

Lunge without losing my balance

Walk in a straight line, DH always comments on me veering into him on pavements

Swim in a straight line