Things your teens don’t know

[Mumofteentwins]

I remember seeing threads like these over the years but now I have teens of my own wanted to resurrect the topic!

I have 15yo twins. They are wonderful, lively, bright, sporty, funny kids. But sometimes I’m astounded at stuff they don’t know 😂 They have two well educated parents and a wide circle of family and friends and a houseful of books etc etc.

The other day I commented that I was pleased at how well my supermarket hyacinths are doing. Both looked blank, neither of them knew what a hyacinth was, ok not the end of the world but there are other examples.

Semi light hearted, but I do feel I’ve only got a couple more years with them at home and I want to fill with them as much general and practical knowledge as possible!

What do your teens not know? Seem to remember teachers usually have a lot to say on these threads!

My teen apparently has absolutely no knowledge about laundry baskets, what they might be for, and where we might keep one, ditto washing machine.

Despite having the fewest academic qualifications in my family I was the only one who knew that clean cloth+surface cleaner(clearly labelled) = clean kitchen or bathroom surfaces.

What about the Moth-er Superior? 😂

None of them knew who Madonna or Tom Cruise were. I nearly crashed the car (joke).

@ChoccyJules which is the joke? That you nearly crashed the car or in fact they did know who Madonna and Tom Cruise are?

That I nearly crashed the car.

So not my teen but about 2 year ago we got a 17 year old on some training programme in our office and she was based in admin we still have desktop computers and handset phones our head admin gave the 17 year old a list of clients and asked her to ring them to remind them of their appointment which was all in this printed list the 17 year old had to be shown how to use the phone she also struggled with using a computer keyboard as she had always used her phone or tablet/iPad it was definitely a learning curve for the admin team.
We get a lot of teens anything from 16+ come through our doors and we still use books to look certain things up they don’t know how to use an index in a book.

Not teen but infant primary aged children. Took them trick or treating after covid and realised they didnt know how to open a normal garden gate. After I got over my shock I realised no one we visited had one so they probably hadn't come across one before. But I will never forget the feeling of shame watching a 7 year old beliwildered by a simple garden gate latch.

if I say to my 16 year old ten to six she has to ask if I mean 5:50 🤣

What the Yellow Pages were and why someone would need one in their home. Her mind was blown by random people being able to look up your phone number 🤣

What a canary was. She suggested something to do with being a coward- so there was a loose connection- yellow/cowardly etc but then I think there are very few budgies and canaries around now as pets so maybe that’s not surprising.

When she was about 12 she was mortified to learn people had sex for fun- she assumed it was for the act of procreation! 😬

She is 16 btw. She knows what a hyacinth is… but said that someone in her class didn’t know that flowers grown in a garden were the same as flowers you can buy in a bunch! The genuinely thought they were different.

Said to my daughter who works in a supermarket what would you do if someone asked for pearl barley. To which my daughter replied, 'well, I would tell them that she doesn't work here.' She had no idea that pearl barley was an actual product you could buy, mostly used for soups!

Our house phone rang the other day and my 13 yr old son nearly hit the ceiling. He did not have a clue what it was! It obviously hasn't been used a lot in the last 10 years! It's sat behind a photo frame on a sideboard in the dining room!

16yo DD didn't know that nobody understands the age of 108 uses laundry starch. Bste needs some for a theatrical costume . Tried the supermarkets in both nearest towns plus the weird and bizarre village shops but ended up buying it on Amazon.

Intact, she doesn't realise that most people no longer iron so our ironing board and iron now live in her bedroom...

@mumofteentwins we used to live around the corner from the house of a keen gardener who had a bed of their front garden filled with hyacinths. There must have been a hundred of them. In the spring when they flowered the smell was gorgeous. I'd only ever seen them singly, in a pot on my mums kitchen window sill. 🪻🪻🪻🪻

I discovered that my dd and her bf 19 have never heard of Clint Eastwood, and, one of my personal favourites, ds 20 (when studying at Oxford) asked me how to actually send a letter …

I just watched a video of an athlete at the Olympics in Milan, being asked the names of different types of pasta.

She’s 20-ish and couldn’t name spaghetti! Couldn’t name any of them!

I don't have a teenager, but when I was pregnant, at my baby shower a family member said when will I wet the baby's head. I responded with "I wasn't planning to have her christened". I'm in my 30s and hadn't heard the term 😬

At the university I worked for, we had a student who grasped the idea that sorting into alphabetical order meant putting things in order according to the first letter a, b, c ….. and so on. However they had no idea that you then sorted each group by the second and subsequent letters. Had they never used a dictionary?

When he was 17, we asked our son to prep and cut the cabbage for our roast dinner while we nipped out. Came home, pan full of sliced lettuce waiting for us 🤣 'they both look the same to me 🤷'was his reasoning. So cute but... I'm sure he's learnt the difference. I hope. He will do, surely...

Not teenagers but older primary children don't understand quater to and quater past and half past the hour. I have to say 8.45 not quarter to nine

Geography. Any of it. Even places she's been to.

Teens don't seem to know not to stand in exits.

The number of kids you get standing like lemons by the bus doors as you are trying to get off are too numerous to mention. Same with exiting shops/the tube station and they stand there, motionless looking at their phones (and blocking the exit!).

Common sense really seems to have gone out of the window with the younger generation.

Telling the time is actually quite hard to teach to a class of varying abilities!

I asked my eldest DD 12, if she knew how to write a letter. Her answer was: obvs 🙄
I asked if she knew what to put on the envelope and she replied a stamp.
OK fine, I was getting irritated and I asked what do you write on it so that it reaches the recipient.
Criket sounds… it turns out she doesn’t have a clue so this half term we are writing to GP’s 🤣

My two (13 and 11) know almost nothing about anything, and neither do their friends as far as I can tell. They just about know who the Prime Minister is, but very little about current affairs, history, basic general knowledge. This despite our house being full of books, is being into all that stuff and talking to them about it regularly. They just don't seem to care. I'm sure I knew and cared so much more at their age.
Having said that, they know a staggering amount about the stuff they are actually into. Dance, theatre, etc.

But God they're astounding sometimes. Elder DD genuinely asked me the other day if boys had belly buttons.

neither of them knew what a hyacinth was

Outrageous!!