To ask what you should know but don't

[Donotunderstandmyhouse]

I have a thread (embarrassingly) atm about the the fact that I have no clue about my own boiler and heating system. Please could I ask you to make me feel slightly less inept as a parent to be and an adult by asking what you do not or did not know that you should ? I'm talking things like one of my friends knew nothing about council tax when we first moved out of our parents homes 🙈

Liam is an abbreviation of William?! What?! 😱😱😱😳😳😳

Hurrah for brizzlemint, thank you!

We've had the Dyson for about 7 years, OH came out into the garden where I was battling dandelions to ask how the dust container was removed for emptying, he also has no idea of how the central heating controls work! My problem is that I am very capable, I make a point of finding out how things work, he works on the principle that I know so he doesn't need to. I've told him I'll die first and leave him in the lurch!

zeezee33 no such thing as “Road tax” really; car owners pay vehicle tax, which goes into the same pot as the income tax we pay and goes towards public services. Road repairs etc aren’t usually covered by your council tax, as far as I’m aware!

Pensions confuse me too. I think schools should introduce personal-finance lessons. What I do know is they rely on the capitalist growth model, which increasingly seems in opposition to environmental welfare!

I don’t understand the internet or how tech works. Actually blows my mind if I think too hadd about it!

Catholics, original Christians, sort of. Protestants, break away group (hence protesting) Catholics believe the bread and wine they consume at Church is the actual body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation) Protestants say it’s just a representation. Protestants prefer a plain looking church, Catholics are more ornate and into decorating the Church.

I can’t set the timer on the heating/hot water. I don’t know how to plug in the Chrome cast. I have no idea how to access my online banking, despite having re-set the whole thing recently. I’m sure there’s more, but google mostly answers everything.

The pensions thing is easy if you’ve been in education forever, so I’m ok there.

Tennis. Dh has to explain the scoring and rules every single year when Wimbledon is on. I just can't retain it. Cricket is the same.

@longwayoff both things are true. Liam is a short form of William, but this particular shortening originated in Ireland, from the Irish form of the name.

Mine is: What is electricity? How does it make things work?

I have absolutely no sense of direction. I may find somewhere driving but that doesn't necessarily mean I know how to get back.

If I'm out in a restaurant or bar I really need to study where the toilets are. Again it doesn't mean that I will find my way back from toilets.

Can be very stressful 🙈

I've just read the WW1 thing and I still don't get it
My friend has explained his job (something involving offices and warehouse and freezers?), a gazillion times in like tyre, I have no idea what he does so now I say he's a transponster.

I've just read the WW1 thing and I still don't get it

What bit aren't you sure about it? Don't blush - if you asked me how to do anything to do with music or art I'd struggle to know one musical instrument or paintbrush from another.

I agree with an earlier poster - the older I get the more I know that I don't know.

OK, WW1.

Britain, France and Russia were friends in the playground.

Germany was friends with Austria and Hungary.

One group of children (Bosnians) were bullying another group of children (Austrians) in part of the playground (Serbia)

Austria told the bullies to stop and if they didn't stop they'd have a fight with Serbia.

Germany decided to stay friends with Austria and Hungary and be angry with Serbia.

Russia decided to be friends with Serbia.

Austria then said it was going to fight Serbia and Germany agreed.

Germany was annoyed because Russia and France were friends with Serbia so said they were going to fight Russia and France. Later Germany invaded Belgium. Belgium had stayed out of the argument and just wanted to mind it's own business. Britain had said that it would look after Belgium and help it keep out of the argument so Britain then got annoyed with Germany and said they would fight Germany.

It's all very complex.

Ditto the poster who mentioned English counties, my lack of knowledge of these is embarrassingly profound. Like, I would struggle to NAME most of them, let alone where they are. But my generation were never taught English geography at school 🤔

But then, I am Cornish, so maybe that’s part of the problem. We only need to know “Cornwall” and “across the Tamar”, and that’s perfectly functional. Anything past Plymouth is referred to as “up country”.

So much I don’t understand

Maths
Brexit
Car maintenance
How to cut the grass
Spices for curry
Stocks and shares

Literally loads

Oh, and on the subject of mathematics:

I can still not at all fathom why on earth two negative numbers multiplied creates a positive number. I’m sorry, but that makes NO SENSE at all, and I am still incensed at my school maths teacher for teaching me such a ridiculous concept at all.

Oooh, now it makes more sense, thanks Brizzle

The offside rule. I grew up with a football mad Dad, now I'm married to a football fanatic so with the amount of football I've seen on the telly I really should understand it but I have no clue 🤷‍♀️.

How electricity works!
Spread sheets
Pivot tables

Oooh, now it makes more sense, thanks Brizzle

No problem.

Can anybody explain the American electoral system to me please? Words of one or two syllables will do nicely

How to pronounce the word “turmeric”.

It is clearly spelled “term-err-ick”. But everyone I know seems to say it aloud as “tumour-ick”.

So I have resigned myself to a life of never, ever saying it aloud, in case somebody thinks I’m stupid and can’t say turmeric properly.

The Clyde Tunnel. It baffles me

How the earth / moon / sun etc move confuses me - in theory I understand (after my dh has explained it multiple times) but it just doesn’t work in my mind

Also photographs - doesn’t matter how you explain it - doesn’t make sense to me - it just seems like you’re trying to explain magic 🙈

(I’m slightly ashamed I’ve studied sciences and maths at degree level so shouldn’t be like this!!)

I don't have the first clue on how to cook!! I'm completely useless. DP is a chef, a very good, successful one. So why can I still not do it!? He's tried to teach me so many times how to even just turn on the hob, I can never do it. What's wrong with me 🤪

Brizzle, Americans have three lots of voting: House of Representatives (in small areas a bit like our MPs), Senate (for each state, like if we had the a couple of Lords elected by each county) and president (like if we voted for Prime Minister). Collectively, the Senate and House of Representatives are called "Congress" (like House of Commons and House of Lords are called "Parliament").

Presidential elections are every four years.
The other two sit for 6 years, but their elections are staggered. So every 2 years 1/3 of the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate up for re-election.

Think of a photo as the camera recording information for a colour by numbers of a very very detailed grid. It records the number of the exact colour and how dark or light it is. When it's asked to show the photo it colours in the grid with the information that it's recorded.