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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that by my age I should know more stuff?

55 replies

DollysDrawers · 01/07/2012 08:39

I am 45 and kind of average at most things. Educated to degree level, OK job, quite creative. But there are so many 'normal' things I don't know or can't do. Nothing major just silly things are of little or no importance but it just struck me that I seem to be going through life in a little bubble of not knowing stuff!

I don't know what celery salt is or what you would use it for.
I can't carve a chicken, it looks like I set the dog on it when I've finished.
I can't cook rice.
I have no idea how to change a wheel (I am shamed by this one).
I still can't put a duvet cover on without a great deal of sweating and swearing.
There are many, many more a lot of them food related so maybe I'm just a shit cook. Smile

Is it just me?

OP posts:
toomuchmonthatendofthemoney · 01/07/2012 09:08

Just waiting for someone from MN Towers to pop along with a link to the Mumsnet Academy courses ......

Original poster
DollysDrawers · 01/07/2012 09:11

I'm going to have a busy day. Beds to change, chicken to carve and rice to cook! I think I can live without the celery salt. Celery is a bastard anyway.

OP posts:
DilysPrice · 01/07/2012 09:34

I do keep celery salt in the house. I went through a poncetastic stage of giving the DCs quails eggs as snacks, and then eating them myself - for which they need to be dipped in a little dish of celery salt. It is delicious.
HTH

takingiteasy · 01/07/2012 09:57

I can't tie my shoelaces the proper way.

And I can't tie ties.

cabbagesoup · 01/07/2012 10:31

I'm an inside out duvet person too - Learnt it as a chambermaid many years back!! Baffles my DH everytime he still climbs in..

But adding to the thread

  1. I still phone my mum for general knowledge
  2. my son knows more about the royal family tree than me (he's 8)
  3. I have no idea about any plants in the garden, trees etc and I live in the countryside
  4. I have no knowledge of politics
  5. I'm also not sure I can do that smug capital city thing, and some of Europe is a blur.
  6. Oh and I don't know my times tables past 5's!!

But I can carve a chicken, and any other roast, I can do the duvet thingie, change a wheel, and plugs and sort out fuses in the house and routers and I once fixed a fiat panda with a shoe lace!!

snice · 01/07/2012 10:34

is it wrong to say that I love this thead?-it has cheered me up no end on a shit moning
Oh and celery salt sounds vile so I wouldn't worry about it

BoffinMum · 01/07/2012 10:35

Post all your random perplexing questions as comments on my blog, and I will answer everything a la Agony Aunt, if you like. Free Austerity Housekeeping mousemat for the best question.

www.austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com

Mrsjay · 01/07/2012 10:37

just get chicken breasts far easier Grin

itsatrap · 01/07/2012 10:49

My parents always seemed to know general stuff, like cooking, diy, gardening, household accounts, and generally running a home. i assumed when i was a parent i would know all these things too, but i don't have a clue!!
Maybe there is a secret book on being 'proper' grown up but mine was missing from my bounty pack??

MammaTJ · 01/07/2012 10:50

I can bake and cook most things but always over estimate rice and pasta.

I cannot get my head round tidying at all!! Total failure!

NarkedRaspberry · 01/07/2012 10:52

Celery salt is seeds/leaves (dried in a low oven) of celery ground and mixed with salt. Most veg stock has a fair bit of celery flavour + salt so it tastes a bit like that.

Go onto You Tube for how to chicken carving/tyre changing clips.

Krumbum · 01/07/2012 10:56

I don't understand! What did you do to the rice? You just boil it!

DawnOfTheDee · 01/07/2012 11:01

I use celery salt when making Bloody Mary's. After a few of those you won't care that you can't change a wheel, etc Smile

PooPooInMyToes · 01/07/2012 11:02

I made rice turn into mashed potato. That takes skill!

anniewoo · 01/07/2012 11:16

Jeez- what's a router?
But i can do the duvet thing - difficult with a super king one though.
Celery salt- who needs it!

SoleSource · 01/07/2012 11:56

I do not know how to

Use a drill, really pisses me off. Wall plug strength, electric cable avoidance same for water pipes etc..too scary.

Ooh I'm really not very knowledgable but I think having a seriously disabled child makes me feel why the fuck should I educate myself. He doesn;t have the choice, why should I.

NutmegKate · 01/07/2012 12:39

King Size duvets are the work of the devil. When we next need a new duvet I am getting two singles.

My head is stuffed with useless things like dates of battles, pedigrees of Lipizzaner horses and hundreds of random stuff I've picked up over the years but, to my shame, I have no practical sense at all. DS2 can take apart and put back together all sorts of electrical equipment just from instinct apparently. How did he know how to do this? - if my pc, telly, or whatever isn't working I either sit and swear or, if feeling particularly hormonal, cry. One of the DCs comes along and does something magical and it works.

Makes me feel really inadequate.

NarkedRaspberry · 01/07/2012 12:51

Best advice for all electronic stuff is still switch it all off, leave it for a minute, switch it back on again.

OAM2009 · 01/07/2012 14:36

I can't do owt!!! But I used to know loads of stuff! I used to nearly speak German and now I can barely say hello in a language I studied for 5 years of my life!!!

What I really need to know is:

  1. how to make sure everything in the meal is cooked at the same time without some items being raw and others burnt? Confused
  2. how to clean the bathroom without using 3 different cloths and chucking 2 in the bin? Confused
  3. how to cut up a mango? Confused Hmm
YouveCatToBeKittenMe · 01/07/2012 14:44

I can't make gravy

It's either like cement or water if I try.
The DC's are really looking forward to their roast dinner tonight as DH is not here to make it! Grin

I can wire a plug but am so paranoid about electrocution that I look it up every time
I wouldn't bother to change my tyre. DH always does the wheel nuts up too tight for me to undo them anyway. He sometimes puts the handbrake on to hard too and I have to use both hands and wedge myself behind it in order to release it Hmm

I can't however bake a cake. I don't like cake much so have never bothered to learn
I feel I may now be banned from Mumsnet for not liking cake.

I don't think i have ever even bought a mango

Anniegetyourgun · 01/07/2012 14:48

Impressed by knowing horse pedigrees. My circle of acquaintances is sufficiently impressed by my knowing Lipizzaner is a breed of horse in the first place. (The trick is: choose friends who have different interests, then you'll all be impressed with how damned clever each other is. As a bonus, you have the makings of a world-beating quiz team.)

I thought all the grunting and swearing whilst changing a duvet was part of the fun.

Celery is just nasty.

cheesesarnie · 01/07/2012 14:53

I'm not sure that I can do any of those things in the op either except the duvet

exaltedwombat · 01/07/2012 15:10

Think how much MORE embarassed you'd be if you were a woman!

NutmegKate · 01/07/2012 15:14

NarkedRaspbery See, that's what I mean, I am so lacking in practical skills that I even forget to do something so simple as turning the fricking power off.

Anniegetyourgun I love knowing all this stuff but it absolutely impresses no one at all in my life. My family and friends treat me like a bit of a weirdo most of the time - they might occasionally ask me advice about setting questions for the pub quiz but that is as far as it goes.

SoleSource · 01/07/2012 15:25

Duvet cover

Place the duvet on the bed, place the end of the straightened duvet with corners right and left infront of you on bed

Place both hands and arms inside turned inside out duvet cover

Find the left and right corners of turned inside out duvet cover hold them

Whilst still holding the duvet cover grab the right and left hand side ends of the duvet you want to cover

Tip up duvet whilst holding the cover and shake forward until you have covered the end of the duvet at least with the cover

Move to the right side of the covered duvet and pull the cover on then do same with left

Voila!

HTH