What mind-blowingly stupid thing has your teen done, or what obvious thing do they ignore?

[Anonymous]

While in college and working part time my DD called my in early April and asked

“Since taxes are almost due and I haven’t done them yet, can I just like skip it this year?”

Suuuure, the IRS let’s everyone have a “skip year” every decade honey!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this some kind of humble brag - the most mind-blowingly stupid thing your kid has done is not know the difference between its and it's?

If you're serious and that is actually true, then congratulations your kid is exceptional.

Seeing how OP has used this thread to post about her son's high GPA and AP scores I'm not even sure this is a "humble" brag post.

People can read bad intent into anything theses days. I took it as a light-hearted post. Kid does well at school and yet has made it this far having no idea about the difference between “it’s” and “it’s”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He goes to public school. What do you expect?

Former teacher:

Kids from private schools who came to our public school always had gaps in their knowledge. 100% of the time. My niece was in private and was top of the 8th grade in math. The school said she had no peers at her math level because she was so far ahead but they created enrichment for her for the 10th grade curriculum. 3/4 of the way through 8th grade she had to switch to public school in FCPS. She was so far behind that she needed tutoring 3x a week to be able to understand what was being taught. I’m not dissing privates because there are some benefits to them, but don’t kid yourself that private school education is the utopia.

Must have been a crap private school. They are not all created equal. And one anecdote about "someone I know" is helpful not one bit. Privates consistently produce better students on a whole compared to publics in every study. This does NOT mean every student is better. It means generally the average student is better. Is also does NOT mean every private is better than every public. It means again generally on average.... normally when folks talk about privates on this forum we are talking about the "good" private schools, not the run of the mill religious school in the Midwest that your niece might have gone to...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 22 y.o. son recently needed step by step instructions on how to use the post office. Apparently, so far he's only ever used prepaid labels provided by retailers or EBay.

I work at a university and have lost count of the kids with no idea how to address an envelope.

I always made my son write thank you notes for gifts, etc so he knew how to do it. What I must have missed is where to put the stamp on the envelope. He asked me that last year.....when he was 16. And I don't understand why adults find it's/its difficult. One has an apostrophe so it's a contraction (it's= it + is) and the other doesn't so it's hard to get them mixed up.

[Anonymous]

Spell check doesn't correct to it's when you incorrectly write its.

[Anonymous]

My 17-yr-old niece is big on schedules. She loves to make them and write them down. But she doesn't understand that sometimes things that you thought would take 1.5 hours end up taking 2+ hours. It's like she doesn't understand the difference between allotting time to something and how long it actually takes to complete that project. She flips out once we've exceeded her scheduled time and gets really annoying with her complaints. Drives me crazy.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is not really mind-blowing, nor is it stupid. Is it a humblebrag, or do you really have no clue about what genuinely stupid things teens can do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:. . . Some of us have kids who actually did mind blowingly stupid things like the tic toc tide pod challenge or benedryl challenge. Or they tried asphyxiation games. Seriously if you find bad grammar to be a mind blowing event you should count your lucky stars and you should be more self aware than to post something so stupidly insignificant and call is mind blowingly stupid.

TikTok challenges were so bad last year that the Superintendent of schools sent warning email about them. A few incidents happened in FCPS.

But a friend in education in a less-affluent area in another state (a bleh state) told me their school principal closed the school for 3 days because the TikTok challenges got so bad!

[Anonymous]

^^^ blue, not “bleh”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know that you’re shocked that your kid lacks basic grammar skills. But your title is really alarmist. Some of us have kids who actually did mind blowingly stupid things like the tic toc tide pod challenge or benedryl challenge. Or they tried asphyxiation games. Seriously if you find bad grammar to be a mind blowing event you should count your lucky stars and you should be more self aware than to post something so stupidly insignificant and call is mind blowingly stupid.

Oh please, give us details & share some stories instead of chastising people for theirs!

[Anonymous]

My sister and her friend in their teens were a riot.

My sister was worried about paying the electric bill for her car (this was the late 80s) - I think our older brother put the thought in her head.

Her friend received a jeep for her sweet 16 and had it for 18 months before the engine basically melted since she never changed the oil (but I blame the parents for that one).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He goes to public school. What do you expect?

Former teacher:

Kids from private schools who came to our public school always had gaps in their knowledge. 100% of the time. My niece was in private and was top of the 8th grade in math. The school said she had no peers at her math level because she was so far ahead but they created enrichment for her for the 10th grade curriculum. 3/4 of the way through 8th grade she had to switch to public school in FCPS. She was so far behind that she needed tutoring 3x a week to be able to understand what was being taught. I’m not dissing privates because there are some benefits to them, but don’t kid yourself that private school education is the utopia.

There are good privates and mediocre privates and also good publics and bad publics. I know a kid who graduated from a private with an A GPA and failed out of a mediocre college in the first year. Another kid who was home schooled and some private school can barely read and never even got a GED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A college-age adult relative told me she thought “barbecue” was just a flavor. She didn’t know it had other meanings.

This is regional. Where I grew up, barbecue is the grill not the food. You barbeque (verb) on the barbeque (noun) but you don't eat barbecue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As for its and it’s, these kids have grown up in a world of autocorrect so I don’t find that as big of a deal.

Maybe this isn’t the most mind numbing but recent for us…

I noticed the bags from vacation are still sitting on the bedroom floor. We have been back over three days. Aside from not putting anything away even though I was assured it was done, I looked and saw none of the toiletries were on the counter in the kids bathroom. Deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. I asked, “does this mean you haven’t brushed your teeth in over three days?” Reply “I forgot”

This made me laugh. My kids would do this. I thought I was done keeping track of brushing but was in the vicinity when my son brushed recently. For 13 seconds. Omg!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He goes to public school. What do you expect?

Former teacher:

Kids from private schools who came to our public school always had gaps in their knowledge. 100% of the time. My niece was in private and was top of the 8th grade in math. The school said she had no peers at her math level because she was so far ahead but they created enrichment for her for the 10th grade curriculum. 3/4 of the way through 8th grade she had to switch to public school in FCPS. She was so far behind that she needed tutoring 3x a week to be able to understand what was being taught. I’m not dissing privates because there are some benefits to them, but don’t kid yourself that private school education is the utopia.

Must have been a crap private school. They are not all created equal. And one anecdote about "someone I know" is helpful not one bit. Privates consistently produce better students on a whole compared to publics in every study. This does NOT mean every student is better. It means generally the average student is better. Is also does NOT mean every private is better than every public. It means again generally on average.... normally when folks talk about privates on this forum we are talking about the "good" private schools, not the run of the mill religious school in the Midwest that your niece might have gone to...

Please share the research on this, controlling for income. I would love to see it. There are good private schools but there is a world of difference from Sidwell etc and a local church school where parents are sending their kids because of the religious affiliation not the rigor of the curriculum.