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!

I'm in my 50s and I've never heard of a lodgement slip!

Oh I just looked it up - I only know it as a paying-in slip.

When I met dh we were young, in our teens. He didn't know ducks could fly. Genuinely thought they were trapped in whatever pond they lived in. He also thought girls pee out their bottom, despite studying biology.

13yo niece can't tell the time on a clock 🤦 my 6yp can though! (Well, can do half a, and quarters... nice can just about do the hours)

How to read a map. Heaven help them if roam out of signal for their phones. May never see them again….

Me too, I'd never heard of a lodgement slip. Also in my 50s.

I wonder when postal orders stopped being a thing. I think I only used one in my entire life, for my UCCA form, after all those years of reading "send.a cheque or postal order for £x.xx to..."

My dd said to her friend Ystd ‘well that was a palaver’ said friend looked very confused, they had no idea what a palaver is 🤦‍♀️😂

At 16, my A* student (who is now at uni doing sciences) didn’t know you can’t put metal in a microwave.

I sent her to the shop for a stock cube once and she didn’t know what they were.

I could go on forever. She’s basically a genius academically but she’s so thick.

I have two very bright teenagers.

The other day they asked my dad what a word meant. He grabbed a dictionary and told them to look it up.

They had absolutely no idea how to use a dictionary!

It made me realise how used to just googling a word is now, and how dictionaries are probably going to become obsolete. I also realised we dont even have a dictionary!

(They know now!)

My 20 year old was appalled when he realised he had to pay for the dentist at 18. 🤣 I do understand his anger to be fair!

My teen had some pictures printed from a disposable camera from a festival she went too. She took the negatives out and said what the hellly ante are these?

I'm feeling less bad about my 10 year old not being able to tellcthecyime in a clock now...

I know virtually no English or History - I hated them both, and it's never bothered me. (maths science etc person)

All the media types would wonder how you could function, of course.

I know a hyacinth is a plant - is it blue?

My daughter knows what a daffodil is (19), and probably a rose - beyond that no idea I expect.

She's got years of grotty student accommodation ahead so I don't think gardens will trouble her for years

I can relate to this. My DD is 39 this year and has always been an avid reader of all book genres. She didn't have a smartphone until 2003 so still has a broad range of general knowledge gleaned from real life rather than simply from the internet/social media.
My DS is 29. He has a much smaller breadth of general knowledge. Those 9 years between them have made a huge difference.

My 16 year old took some ibuprofen for an ear ache recently and asked me how it knew where the pain was to act on it 🤣🥰.

My dd phoned me at work recently to ask how to stick a stamp on an envelope - should she use sellotape? I was baffled as I knew she'd used stamps, but it turned out she'd bought a single one that wasn't self sticking like the ones in the little books. She had no idea about licking a stamp!

I.was still wondering that at 30, and then it dawned on me. A true revelation.

It makes life much easier for the bus drivers if you indicate you want him to stop the bus. It is a P.I.A for the driver to pull in only to realise you don't want that bus as you are waiting on another one.

I think the real point here is that 'Hyacinth' is written on all the plants in the supermarket. Well, all the hyacinth plants, anyway. So you don't really have to garden, or even have hyacinths in the house - just be aware when you walk round a supermarket. Which most teens aren't.

They haven't i recently had to send one for my sons provisional licence in abscense of a cheque book.

I teach teenagers, as did dh until a few years ago, so I'm very used to the strange things they don't know (and the strange things they do know!). My favourite is one of dh's (ex-history teacher).

Now retired history teacher friend was asked 'Please Mrs C, who won the Battle of Hastings?' and having been doing the Second World War 'Was there a First World War, then?'

Mine in her early teens went into the local city on the bus for the first time with her friends … they all got back on the bus to come home at the same stop …. I didn’t realise I had to explain that you crossed the road

I suppose that comes from having been driven everywhere as children. I knew where all the local buses went and where to catch them before I was old enough to go out alone.

Though I did once have trouble trying to explain to a tourist in the Strand that yes, bus xx did go from this stop, but it was going east, and as he wanted to go west, he needed the stop across the road. ( He was British, going by his accent, so it wasn't a language issue.)

dd just moved into her own place .She didn’t know you had to pay water rates lol she’s appalled

As a teen I used to catch a local train from a tiny station that was a request stop - you used to stick your hand out to signal for the train to stop.

If you wanted to get off, you had to ask the conductor to stop and hope that s/he remembered (sometimes they didn’t and you’d go sailing through your stop).

14 year old thought that bald spots on old men were a style choice “Why don’t you just grow your hair back Grandad, instead of shaving that part”. Had me in stitches for weeks.

Booking GP appts, ordering regular meds once they turn 16, booking haircuts, taking Ubers/taxis (not our normal, we only really use them in emergencies, so all the more reason for them to need practice.

When my daughter was 19 she asked me to book her dentist’s appointment. I said ‘you’re old enough to do it yourself’ to which she replied ‘all my friends’ parents do it for them’.
If, aged 19, I’d asked my parents to book appointments for me they’d have looked at me as if I’d asked them to book me a seat on a rocket to Mars.