To be surprised that my 15yo son didn’t know the difference between a comb and a brush?

[PlopTeeth]

Just that really. I asked him to fetch the comb from the bathroom and he asked which one that was. I suppose that I assumed that by 15 he would know the difference and now I’m wondering what other basics we have failed to teach him. 😂

So, what lack of knowledge, either in someone else or yourself, have you been surprised by? (Lighthearted 😉)

Adult DS1 doesn't understand the seasons, what weather to expect or what order they are in despite starting every school year writing an essay about the leaves changing colour.

My 16 year old doesn’t understand the difference between safari and google.

I had to break the news to my OH at an age that began with a 3 that ham is made from pork.

This is an 11 year old who had presumably been going to school for many years though.. not a retired person.

I also once had to explain to a colleague that lamb was indeed lambs... not just a name they gave elderly sheep that had lived a good long life before being eaten she was about 30 and only believed us (and accepted her own mum had been lying to her her whole life) when a colleague rang her partner who was a farm hand to confirm it

I suppose it’s because you only really see lamb in the shops. I can’t remember he last time I saw ‘mutton’.

@Raera erm I’m 36, like to think I’m fairly intelligent...every day is a school day

My sister, a doctor, was 21 and at med school when she was talking to me (17 at the time) and revealed that she thought you had to remove a tampon every time you peed. She was going through many and I found it flabbergasting

When DH and I were in Paris he pointed out the memorial for the Unknown Soldier. I asked why they couldn't now use DNA to work out who he was.

I was 27.

DH couldn't tell if I was joking or not - I wasn't

My dc when he started work didn’t know to dial 9 for an outside line from a landline!

The Digital Generation just didn’t know how!

didn’t know to dial 9 for an outside line

That's hardly surprising, is it? You only have to do that on certain older-style internal phone systems, not every landline. I'm nearly 40 and have worked in offices since I left uni. I only ever had to dial 9 for an outside line in one job about fifteen years ago. Everywhere else we all had individual direct-dial numbers.

@OhLook
No special needs but had been homeschooled from year 2? to the end of primary school before being sent to state secondary. Which isn't an excuse but I guess he'd never had any sort of timetable (that sort of homeschooled) and was, tbh, completely babied by his parents.
He didn't even twig on the first day when we got our timetables. It was a couple of days later when he asked me HOW I was certain that it was Thursday tomorrow...

It was concerning, to say the least. In many respects he was quite bright.

Teaching teenagers I've had some corkers.

Looking at different contraception and got on to the cap, "Miss what if you want to go to the toilet?"
" Er you don't pee from there."

My explanation for a pheasant was, "It's a kind of bird, you can eat it",
"Uhg, who'd eat a bird?"
"Do you eat chicken?"
"OMG I didn't know it was a bird!"

The revelation that there was actually a ship called, "Titanic"

Very few can tell the time on an analogue clock, they all use their phones.

amusedbush

The US has a number of unknown soldiers from different wars. When DNA testing came out they exhumed the one for the Vietnam war, tested him and returned the body to the family.

@sashh

That makes me feel a bit better

@JoyceTempleSavage we have had nots but it was a long time ago (thank heavens!) so I really don’t understand how he doesn’t know which is which. We do ‘brush’ the dog with a comb though so maybe that’s what there’s confusion (clutching at straws here).

Some of these are funny, I suppose everything is obvious once you know!

nits

When I met my DH (he was 22) he didn't know the difference between a comb and a brush. I laughed and bought the poor boy a proper hairbrush. I didn't know other people had the same problem lol. Xx

Sorry bout the kisses, force of habit.

I taught my husband to blow his nose 🤧🤢

My brother told my mum the other day he'd just pop a can of ravioli in the microwave at work. She was shocked and said obviously not to do that with metal and that he always decanted beans so why not ravioli? And he didn't even have an answer other than "well I watched you decant them so always just did it, didn't think of why" at 20 he genuinely didn't know not to put metal in the microwave.

@Sexnotgender to be fair, perhaps it's because you're labeling it wrong... it's not safari OR 'google'. It's Safari or Google Chrome, or Apple Safari or Google Chrome.

My husband asked me, in a natural history museum, whether shells were found in nature or if people made them.

... shells! He said that he didn't grow up by the sea, if that's any sort of excuse.

He also asked me if a particular river was flowing to or from the sea.

My Dcs don't seem to know the difference between pillows and cushions. It drives me up the wall. Ds (17) has only just learnt to blow his nose.

DH doesn't know the difference between pillows or cushions either. He constantly refers to the cushions on the couch as pillows, and the throw as a rug. It drives me mad and now he's got the kids saying it!