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 😉)

@thecatsthecats I kind of love your DH 😂

My husband is 47 and uses brush and comb interchangeably. He also says his stomach hurts when he means his gut. He also says you have a suntan, when you are bright red. Had to explain the difference between suntan and sunburn. Men.

I thought that 10 slices of pizza would be too much, so I would rather have 6, until my grandad demonstrated with a coaster that it would still be the same size regardless of what it was cut into.

Dd came back without any spring onions saying that they only had salad onions in the shop.

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

I think the poster was saying that their DC didn’t understand that Safari was the browser and Google was the search engine.

My dd (then 16) had to be given a demonstration on how to make a cup of coffee with instant coffee. She didn’t have a clue it existed as dh is incredibly wanky over his coffee and he only ever had percolator coffee at home.

She was genuinely stunned

My town has two shopping streets and I didn't really know which was which until my 20s. I've lived here all my life.

I've had people knock on my shop window and ask where the door was (95% of customers manage) one then walked straight past the door and asked someone's outside how they got in.

Another adult came to pick up a car which had been repaired:

'I've come to get my car'
'no problem what kind of car was it'
'not sure, erm don't know'
'what was it getting done then'
'I don't know, its the blue one round the side'
I went to look, no blue car anywhere on site, she replied ' must be grey then'
' sorry no grey ones either'
'oh dear what am I going to do?'
I had to get the boss and ask if he'd rang anyone to say their car was fixed and to come and see if it was her, he couldn't believe someone could drive a car, drop it in for repair and be so..... Dim!

I remember when my eldest was about 10 or 11 we were somewhere that had exotic burgers - so emu, ostrich, crocodile etc. She was horrified at the idea of emu or ostrich because 'I can't eat a bird' - pointed out chicken was a bird and she looked confused (kangaroo though apparently is absolutely fine to eat)

Mine has just learnt that although Amazon Prime usually does next day delivery to us, it does not guarantee that an order placed on the evening of February 13th will arrive on Valentine's Day 💔

We had a question in the pub quiz, Which animal................? The answer was the name of a bird and a couple of our team argued that a bird isn't an animal. When I tried to explain about living/non-living then plants/animals I was accused of being 'too smart'. These weren't young people. we're all over 60!

When I was about 15 my mother commented that I was using a knife in my left hand to peel an apple. That was when we realised that I have an odd form of ambidexterity, my handedness differs. I always cut with a knife in my left hand but none of us had ever realised it, if I'm picking something up a favour my left hand but I write, play tennis etc with my right hand.

"He also says his stomach hurts when he means his gut"

@SVRT19674 am I being dense here? (Probably). Does anyone say that their "gut" hurts? I don't think I've ever said that in my life. I always say stomach (maybe tummy) ache...

Just asked my 14yo son - he has no idea of the difference between a comb and a brush either! Not that surprising as he doesn't look as though he uses either very often

My 7yo son however, gave a very detailed description of each when I asked just now - and the circumstances in which he would use both and what for.

My at the time 19 year old housemate didnt know the difference between cupboards and drawers in the kitchen. He also didn't know what a whisk looked like.

@35WeBuiltCisCityOnSexistRoles I thought the same. Who says they have a "sore gut"?

@mrsBtheparker that’s called mixed handed. I’m the same - I write right handed, but play sport left handed. Quite handy for confusing the opposing team!

@Insideimsprinting are you sure they weren't just trying to steal a car?!

@MissingLinker Ah, that makes a tiny bit more sense then.

@mrsBtheparker that’s called mixed handed. I’m the same - I write right handed, but play sport left handed. Quite handy for confusing the opposing team!

It's also a pain when buying kitchen knives, they tend to be honed for righties but not lefties!

It still amazes me that we got through 15 or 16 years with no-one in the house noticing, my Mother said I should have helped more in the kitchen, peeling potatoes then I would have realised.

Like a PP mentioned, my almost 16 year old struggles to tell the time on a normal clock face without actual numbers on. Always uses her phone to tell the time. 🙄

DD (22) doesn't know the difference between cushions and pillows and it really annoys me.

When she was in her teens she thought that 'England' was all 1 sports team. That Beckham et al played them all - football, rugby, cricket etc .

@hazell42

Kingsley Amis (via Lynne Truss in Eats, Shoots and Leaves) disagrees with you. But I think he's pretty much on his own! www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/mar/15/1

My teenage niece thought I was joking jellies are made with beef gelatin. She is a new vegan munching on haribo. 🤣
There is a lot to learn we overestimate their knowledge far to much.

@Iwantcollarbones that made me laugh. Slightly different but drink related, it reminded me of a friend I was making a cup of tea for many years ago. When I asked how many sugars he took, he didn’t know as his mum always made it for him 🙄

@MT2017 oh dear! Hopefully it didn’t cause too much angst?

DS is 11 and plays the guitar. His teacher does not take kindly to dirty nails and we have a nail brush next to every sink in the house because if this and the various mucky activities we all get up to. I sent DS to scrub his nails before his guitar lesson. He had no idea that he needed to use soap. My fault I guess. Or he’s a lazy old so and do.

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!

This kind of generational snobbery is really irritating.

My current workplace doesn’t need to dial 9 to make outside calls, you just call normally. My old workplace, you needed to dial 0 for an outside line. This really isn’t something unusual not to know.