… to think there's something wrong with me? :(

[Dieu]

No piss taking please, as I feel genuinely, irrationally upset at this moment!
My 10 year old daughter just asked if I would plait her hair. My heart sunk, as I am completely rubbish at doing hair. I tried and failed, so we looked up THE most simple hair braiding youtube tutorial. I still couldn't get it, or what my hands were supposed to do. Teenage daughter (girls are wasted on me, with my poor hairdressing skills!) came into the room, and did her hair in two seconds flat. I also couldn't get my head around it when she showed me. Than it struck me that I have failed 8 driving tests (the theory was aced first time). Could it be linked? Academically I am bright; I have a first class degree and can speak several languages. However, my practical/manual/co-ordination skills completely suck! I actually felt embarrassed just there in front of my daughters, and pretty fucking ineffectual. Is anyone else like this? Can't help but feel that I'd be diagnosed with something, if still in childhood (I should add that I possess good writing skills, etc). Of course it could be that I'm over thinking this, being too hard on myself, and that I just happen to be shite at practical driving tests and hair!

I am academic, good at maths and English, can drive perfectly, can cook...
I cannot for the life of me do my daughters hair. I just don't get it! Despite having long hair myself which I can manage a pony tail, bun or down.
Don't be so hard on yourself. I just accept I'm crap at it!
I also can't draw so maybe it's more an art thing with me?

Maybe you noticed the stuff you're bad at more, because you're usually good at things.

Maybe you noticed the stuff you're bad at more, because you're usually good at things.

Same here - failed driving test six times, can't do my own or Dd's hair but good academically and at languages

I think it is good that children see that sometimes the grown ups can't do some things, don't feel embarrassed, we all have too high expectations from
ourselves. ( actually I'm a granny so shouldn't really be on here lol) but that does mean I'm a mum so guess it's ok. Xx

From observation I think there are various factors which influence phenomena like these here (and many of which I also suffer from):

• Hormonal influences (so severity and/or manifestation fluctuates)
• Occult left-handedness (you were assigned right-handedness early on and treated as such, but are actually left-handed)
• Inappropriate teaching (for example being taught by someone who sees the world in spatial terms whereas you approach it through verbal or written media)
• Dealing with things designed for someone else (maps, for example, and cars were originated and designed by males; nearly everything is designed for right-handers)
• Antipathy (natural or learned; so if you've been told from an early age that girls can't park, or that piloting a fighter plane is difficult and damages your hearing, you may be put off even trying these things)
• Fear (some people have vested interests in telling you scare stories about can happen if you engage in a particular activity: "My auntie had two fingers cut off when she tried to put up an ironing board once")
• Disruption in the brain (probably everyone on here knows only too well just how many things can go wrong along the path from conception to birth; it's hardly surprising that minor damage occurs on the way)
• Learned failure ("You'll never be any good at Maths"; "It's no good asking you, is it? You've always been hopeless at Maths" etc.)

During World War II women from all sorts of backgrounds were called up for war work and, in the UK's inimitable way of going about things, they were designated to any particular work in a fairly random fashion. However there were astonishingly few who didn't manage to get to grips with the work they were assigned. They had to let go of preconceptions (theirs and other people's), overcome fear and learned responses, and they did it.

There are some things you might never be able to do, but they're probably far fewer than you would think. Take a deep breath, forget you were ever unable to do it, and find a way of learning or being taught how to do it which is right for you. You'll be amazed at what you can do - but just find workarounds for those you can't.

Whatever you do, don't beat yourself up about any of it!

My father EXACTLY. Super intelligent, highly educated and even quite capable with say putting up a shelf but struggles to turn on a cooker. He's clumsy and gets really upset and wound up by why he cannot do simple manual tasks or anything'fiddly'. Just EMBRACE it. We all have different skills and brains wired in different ways. If it makes you feel better I cannot recall dates or which way is left/right.

I can plait but no fancy ways.
Pickachew I too amuch hypermobile (it was called floppy joint syndrome when I was a kid, a professor wrote a paper on me apparently ). I am very clumsy. I don't have great balance either. I learned to drive but didn't pass my test. I'm logically minded but didn't master languages.
Don't beat yourself up op, we're all different

Oh my god this is me and my son... He's 5. Falls constantly, drops things, spills drinks.

I on the other hand just spill stuff all the bloody time. Bang into things. Still have bruised legs like a child (very attractive).
I'm now a gardener. Need safety gear. I'm a liability (I've kept that off my business cards though!)

It could be dyspraxia.

Sound just like me. I've just passed my GCSE maths at 51 - have always felt I am academically fine but really struggle with stuff like doing my daughters hair, making fancy cup cakes, sewing, basically anything detailed. I also feel i take longer to process instructions and forget what I have just read... ie. recipes etc. I am crap at trying to cook a meal with guests all in the kitchen chatting to me as cannot seem to multi-task - maybe I'm a bloke!!

Oh yeah, forgot to add - really bloody clumsy, little prangs with car, falling over, knocking things over, breaking things.... arghh feel pretty bloody useless but try so hard not to be!

Like a lot of posters here I'm a dead loss at any form of ball sports due to a lazy eye and limited 3D vision. I tried so hard to play tennis in my teens it was heartbreaking, looking back, but I've made my peace with not having the correct visual equipment installed at birth. Premature birth can cause these problems, apparently -something to do with stimulating the visual cortex before it's ready.

I don't do hair either. I did learn to do ballet buns but I could never do it without hurting DD's scalp so I was quite relieved when she learned to do it herself. My own hair is short.

Sense of direction -forget it and thank heaven for Google Drive. I get even worse with other people around. Theoretically I can read a map, I just struggle to relate it to the scene in front of me, and if anyone tries to explain it to me it makes about as much sense as playing the Mona Lisa on the violin.

On the other hand I'm a walking dictionary and only have to look at a word once to be able to spell it. I am also a crazy fast reader (ambled through Harry Potter 6 in about four and a half hours).

My friend's son is travelling alone around Europe and ventures out tomo for a three week trip. He has never been away alone before and just finished Uni. Friend asked, could you add me to facebook/whatsapp so we can keep in touch and I can make sure you are ok? He said no. She is due to move house in next few weeks and he will be away and doesn't know where they will be moving to. Is she BU to withhold their new address until he includes her in his communications?

I'm sorry I was reading your thread and starting a new one n balls it up! I do apologise for my randomness in the middle of your thread. Put it down to not being very academic, not practical at all and a bit dim.

Yep. Same here. Academic I'm good, practical very poor. Also have two girls and I can't do their hair or my own. Can't apply make up properly. Bad handwriting, can't draw, struggled to pick up driving. Can't swim, can't pick up most sports. The list is endless. I used to worry, but now I just keep trying in the hopes that I'll get there eventually. :) Glad there are others.

Don't feel bad, my 10 year old daughter loves having her hair braided and I'm totally useless at it. I still try and bless her she goes to school with a very loose plait that most probably doesn't last till first play time. Practice makes perfect (or so I keep telling myself lol xx

This is so me. My friend is the same: both of us have degrees in English and professional post-graduate qualifications; both of us found it insanely difficult to learn how to drive. The whole co-ordination thing is too much plus my driving instructor told me I think about everything too much. I am now a driver but paralysed with fear overtime I go out and am too scared to drive anywhere new by myself.

Me too.
Passed my driving test at the 8th attempt.
Am always black and blue because I misjudge furniture and doorways.
Can't do hair.
Can't use the sky remote or sky plus planner despite working in IT as a software engineer.
Poor at team sport.
Good at maths but can't do rotation of shapes etc.
Not dyslexic but both DCs are and DS is dyspraxic.

I breeze through traditionally difficult things that are Maths or computer based and yet can't do some really simple things. I have a mental block and can't learn my right and left or know what letter comes next in the alphabet without going through the lot in my head. Learning to drive was frustratingly hard.
Thanks for starting this thread OP, it's good to read how many people have similar experiences. Keep embracing your strengths.

Yoko thank goodness! I had gave up hope

Shakey we do exist...we just don't advertise ;) I looked at the dishwasher just now and thought, 'AGAIN? JEEZ!'.

Woodly I love your incompetence in posting on the wrong thread - very apt

My DH's nickname for me is "Graceful Ballerina" said sarcastically (but affectionately). I spend my life covered in bruises and muttering "oh for fucks sake" under my breath It doesn't help that I am now disabled. You should have seen me attempting the stairs this morning with two crutches and a cat who wants me dead, clearly.

I can remember the registration plate of every car I have had (even my parents' cars as a child) but I cannot lock the front door of my house. Every single day I turn the key the wrong way first. If someone throws something to me, it will hit me in the face. Every.Single.Time. I cannot plug things into sockets and as for USB cables, there are only 2 ways to put it in and 1 is right - why does it take me 5 attempts to plug it in? How is it even possible?! I have broken every mug I have ever owned.

DH wouldn't even go into the China department of John Lewis with me the other week he actually said "stand there and I'll bring stuff to show you"

There was an interesting thread about this a few months ago. One thing lots of us had in common was directions - if I think about going to Place A to Place B even if I know them both very well, I just cannot "visualise" at all how to get there, it's literally a blank spot in my mind.

In contrast my DH does the most amazing complicated plaits for our DDs, he catches stuff I drop before it hits the floor, and can sense when a door is going to hit me in the face He is genuinely graceful and perhaps incidentally has beautiful hands. Only one of our DCs has inherited his grace, the rest are clumsy fuckers like me

I just realised this morning. I am doing an internship in a very prestigious global organisation, in a very advanced field. And yet everytime, I get confused which card to use to access the office door and the building elevator. :P

(We have two cards, one for the office, one for the elevators/toilets)