For fun: What life skills do your teenagers lack?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is perfect timing! DS has good basic skills, great with emails and on phone. This morning he said I wrote a driver's ed check incorrectly, referring to xx/100. He asked if it should be xx/650. I had to explain that this indicated no cents...100 pennies is? xx means? xx/100 means? To make easier, I told him he could write 00/100

BTW...he's in AP business classes. Otherwise, all is well.

that was the problem... he should've take a dumb business class. We learned how to write a check and balance a checkbook in that class, back in the 80s though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't jump over a chain link fence.

Yes, and mine can't hotwire a car. Thank god she can jump a turnstile. Why on earth would anyone NEED to jump a chain link fence if they're following rules?

Because the gate is locked, of course.

Maybe if the gate is locked a person shouldn't be going in.

[Anonymous]

We’re on vacation. DS 11 asked what he should do with his dirty fork. I told him to put it in the dishwasher, like he does at home.

He opened the oven, looked a little confused, but then left it on the rack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re on vacation. DS 11 asked what he should do with his dirty fork. I told him to put it in the dishwasher, like he does at home.

He opened the oven, looked a little confused, but then left it on the rack.

How the hell does an 11 yr old not know the difference between a dishwasher and an oven? By 11, all my kids had to each cook dinner once a week!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

You never did this in school? Apparently, you missed out on an important childhood experience. You crank the machine with a handle on the side, then you hold the paper copies up to your nose and smell them.

LOL! Sniffing the mimeo copies! Brings back middle school memories...

[Anonymous]

When my kids were high school, I taught them how to thread a needle and sew on a few different kids of buttons. So funny to watch their concentration. You would have thought they were performing surgery!

I also had each of them sit down, go thru the bills and write checks. (The old days of actually writing checks). Good experience for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re on vacation. DS 11 asked what he should do with his dirty fork. I told him to put it in the dishwasher, like he does at home.

He opened the oven, looked a little confused, but then left it on the rack.

How the hell does an 11 yr old not know the difference between a dishwasher and an oven? By 11, all my kids had to each cook dinner once a week!

JUDGMENT FREE ZONE!

I’m guessing the oven and dishwasher looked different from theirs at home and it threw him for a loop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is perfect timing! DS has good basic skills, great with emails and on phone. This morning he said I wrote a driver's ed check incorrectly, referring to xx/100. He asked if it should be xx/650. I had to explain that this indicated no cents...100 pennies is? xx means? xx/100 means? To make easier, I told him he could write 00/100

BTW...he's in AP business classes. Otherwise, all is well.

that was the problem... he should've take a dumb business class. We learned how to write a check and balance a checkbook in that class, back in the 80s though.

True! I got all of my early financial knowledge from the Math-for-Dummies class I had to switch into when Algebra 2 got too hard.

[Anonymous]

I am a 36 yr old professional and never learned how to iron. I use a steamer when necessary. Or the dryer.

[Anonymous]

When DS was about 9, he got in BIG trouble because he made $1,000 worth of in-app purchases on Clash of Clans. After further discussion, I realized he didn’t think it would actually cost us money. He didn’t think there was any way to pay an ipad, so I guess he thought we were full of it when we said those things cost money. The punishment still stood because he knew he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to. It was just funny that he didn’t get how it would actually cost us money.

Oh, and Apple was kind enough to let us off the hook. Apparently it happens all the time.

[Anonymous]

A few months after I moved into my first apartment with a roommate, we couldn’t understand why the dryer was no longer working very well. We called the landlord to look at it. We didn’t know about the lint trap! We had both done our own laundry for years at home, but neither of us knew this. At home, it would just get cleaned by someone else soon enough that it was never noticed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Balance a checkbook.

I'm not even sure my kid knows what a checkbook is even for!

+1! My DS14 just opened his first checking account with Cap One - it's all online and no checks - it's called a teen account! They actually advertise it this way. He had to have it for his first summer job b/c they do automated payroll into bank accounts. Bank account had to be in your name. He did learn how to sign a check from his other job and deposit via the APP though. Mom's never done that! I'll also confess that I've never balanced a checkbook - ever. I just know round about how much I have in there.

[Anonymous]

My son can read a map, but he has no clue how to buy something. Last weekend we went to get him a new journal. His money. He assured me had had brought enough “plus some extra in case”. The cashier told him how much and my son produced a wadded up ball of money from his pocket which he dumped on the counter, half of it falling off onto the floor. I was horrified! The very nice cashier patiently unfolded it, counted it out, and then we had a long talk about the physical management of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else think a "life skills" camp would be highly profitable?

Even just Home Ec how it used to be. I learned basic cooking skills, how to make a complete meal including a cake for dessert. We sewed stuffed animals and had to make a pair of boxer like shorts, we sewed the buttons on by hand.

I do wish jr high had a useful home ec/life skills class. It was mostly sewing when I took it in the 80s and apparently that still the case. That seems like such a waste of time. Basic button sewing is useful sure but clothes are so cheap now that sewing is s nice hobby but really isn’t an important life skill. I wish that class covered basic cooking techniques, and some of these other useful household management type tasks. And, yes, I am trying to teach my kids these things at home, but reinforcement would not hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

You never did this in school? Apparently, you missed out on an important childhood experience. You crank the machine with a handle on the side, then you hold the paper copies up to your nose and smell them.

I mean, I DID, a couple of times, but they were obsolete by the time I was in middle school, so I've forgotten how.