Basic stuff you were taught to do but couldn’t do now…

[GwinGwyn]

I just moved house and bought a new lamp which didn’t have a plug, so I had to fit one myself. I had to look it up on YouTube as I couldn’t quite remember how to do it and didn’t fancy frying myself on my first night in my new place.

But it made me feel a bit regretful that I couldn’t remember how to do it, as my mum taught me when I was younger. A bit like changing a tyre, one condition of her paying for my driving lessons was that she taught me how to change a tyre… that said my car has locking wheel nuts that were last changed using a machine, so even if I could remember how to change a tyre (which again I would have to YouTube to remind myself) I physically don’t think I could undo something tightened by machine.

What other skills did you used to have but can’t recall anymore? (This is essentially a ‘please make me feel less bad for being a bit useless’ thread!)

I gained an advanced qualification in Shorthand many moons ago....wouldn't have a clue about any of it now!

Riding a bike. They say you never forget how but I have.

sewing, knitting, cross stitching, embroidery and macrame
although im sure i can pick them up fairly quickly- i was showing crocheting to my 4y DD and remembered basic stuff as if I last did it yesterday! More complicated stuff I of course can’t remember

also: math

Ah yes I also forgot how to skipper a boat (i got day skipper a decade or so ago but don’t sail enough). I can still be a decent crew but can’t skipper boat for sure

Me too: one language fluently, two others I could get by in. I even lived and worked in other countries for a few years. So fluent in one that I dreamed in the language.
Thirty years later, I can still string a sentence together, but I’m lost when people talk at normal speed or I listen to songs or watch a film.
Also I’ve lost a lot of cooking skills, things I so took for granted that I didn’t even think of them as skills, eg pastry.

Sewing and knitting 😩 I've tried and tried but I'm just crap at them! My mum and MIL and both grandmothers were all good at both. I think I just don't have the patience 😬 I can just about sew on a button and mend a hem or a split seam but that's about it!

Getting from a to b.

The sat nav has deskilled me.

We used to teach plug wiring for year 7 science but stopped when new appliances brought in sealed plugs for safety reasons.

Oh, and I still remember my childhood friends landline numbers from the 80s but haven't a clue about new friends mobile numbers.

For those curious re: chainsaw use - wood, for firewood - downed, dead limbs, etc, from the woods. Didn't want a battery, or electric reliant saw; probably an 18" bar would have been fine, but none in stock.

@Compash thanks, I nearly forgot that other really useful purpose.

Do headstands. I used to spend half my lunch hour doing them at junior school! Last time I tried (a long time ago, as an adult) it hurt sooo much! I don't understand why, it didn't used to!

I've forgotten basically my entire degree. I look at the maths I used to do and don't even recognise most of the crazy symbols.

But I'm much better at cooking and know much more about child development now!

Going back to being taught to wire plugs in the mid 80s, we were taught two standards of colour coding but also at a time where it was becoming the norm to have a wiring card attached to the plug.

I was taught to double check, eg an DIY reference book or to open an existing plug.
With wiring a plug being part of one of the science practicals (physics?) I made an extra effort to remember the colour coding’s ….. only to find a plug with wiring card on the table for the test.

Its an important part of learning to understand that you may not always get it right, looking up a reference picture ‘pointlessly’ is better than blowing a fuse or worse

I remember being taught how to wire a plug in science, in year 10 I think. Can't remember now, but still remember quite a bit of the other stuff we were taught about electrics (all came back to me when I was studying electrics recently, though not enough came back to me as I failed my exam!). Maths I hadn't done since I was 16 also came back to me when studying maths again, so even though I thought I had forgotten it all, once I started doing it again I found the memories deep in the crevices of my mind.

Reading music

Jump start a car with those lead thingies.