Basic things younger people don't know.

JaneJudge

All electrical items come with a plug attached now and an isolated fuse which you can remove and replace. There must be a reason this adaption was brought into production, safety perhaps?

Wyllow, I think you raise a really good point. I've been talking to some of the young people I work with about registering to vote as they are all worrying about their energy bills but most of them don't vote. They say (quite a lot of them) they don't know how it works. So I have told them, they need to register and then read up on the candidates and each election/by election/council election and chose someone who fits their view (not fool proof I know ) and believes in things that matter to them. I have said to them, they cannot be complacent that other people will vote in their best interests.

Re cutlery, I also work in a multi cultural environment and some people <gasp> eat dinners with their hands Some cultures are not taught nor find it necessary to use a fork. I just can't get excited about it.

I'm concerned young people don't know how lovely they are. There is so much pressure on them to look and be a certain way, from their own looks to cars, houses and the interference from the 'the outside world' is immediate via phones/social media. It can't be healthy for them

No they don't! They may do so in the UK, but I have not been in any European country that has fuses in the plugs! There may be one or too that do, I haven't been in every country,

We have fuse boxes - the new ones you only need to pull a handle back down from the off position which is up when a fuse blows to "mend" it. The older fuse boxes had fuses that you unscrewed and replaced with a new one when the fuse went.

Being able to change a fuse is important, and voting even more so - but do not British schools teach pupils how a democracy works? Our schools do, with 11 year olds and upwards holding mock elections in an election year. If neither schools nor parents are teaching children their civic rights and duties, I find it easier to understand the mess the UK is currently in.

How you hold a fork, knife, spoon or pencil is basically a matter of custom, although some ways of doing these things are better for your muscles than others.

I really cannot get up in arms about whether people eat with their fingers or with forks! I find it much more important that they wash their hands before sitting down to a meal, but I realise that children are no longer taught this rudimentary form of hygiene.

It's not just young people! My BiL, who is 60 and a Cambridge graduate, got a kitten for his daughter who was struggling with her emotional wellbeing. He made no provision for a litter tray etc then phoned his aged mother to ask what to do because the house was starting to smell!

I do rely on children & grandchildren when I have a tech problem.

A friend of DD 1 (a single parent) needed a new fridge freezer as hers had broken. We had a spare one which we offered her if she could arrange a remover. When the guys took the fridge they accidentally damaged the plug and took it off.
I was amazed later to get a message from her saying the fridge was broken and useless! on investigation it was the missing plug, and she had no idea how to obtain a new one or how to put it on!
I was shown how to wire a plug by my DF when I was about 12, and I taught my 3 how to do so as well, along with simple changing fuses etc; so it had never occurred to me that someone in their 30’s would not know this.

One of my mums very young carers asked if one of the photos she has up was her husband!! It really made my mum laugh, it was a picture of Elvis!??

That although I no longer work 9-5 I m not always free to sit waiting for a parcel from Amazon/ Etsy etc any time: any day
Bless them ❤️

Yes i tried to teach youngest about switching lights off but it doesnt stay in his head so i follow him around too!?

I think this is through watching American films/tv.

Curlywhirley- it was a surprise for elder son (23) too when i told him he'd have to pay his way a bit when he left college? He still thinks i should be 'treating' him to a lot of extras that wouldnt be counted as 'bed& board'! (& cause im a softy, i often do!)?

I had explain or he'd have got a huge shock if he thinks he's going to playing video games& theres no power?

Kirkcubbin..?- i mentioned to my youngest (19) about how we had blackouts back in 70's as well- & he said "whats blackouts?"

Barmyoldbat Love that one. Been chuckling in between doing a tidy up!

Calendargirl

growstuff

Shelflife

I notice young people don't hold / use a knife and fork in a way I consider proper. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but knives and forks are designed to be held in a certain way. No big deal I recognize that but I wonder why?

Maybe because their parents didn't teach them.

My teenage GC were certainly taught how to use cutlery, but now, at 17 and 14, choose to use them differently.

GS just seems to shovel food into his mouth and GD abandons her knife and uses her fork only, in one hand, even though it seems to make getting the actual food into her mouth harder than if she used both.

These habits seem to have been acquired since starting secondary school.

I am surprised their parents tolerate that, my son and daughter in law wouldn’t with their teenage children

And yet I still see people posting almost aggressive responses to grandmothers who feel ignored, and who feel they have no input into the way their son/daughter is raising their grandchildren. Now, I'm certainly not for criticising or interfering, but the odd piece of gentle advice is surely what we are here for? In fact, it is very sad that such advice isn't sought after, because it can be very reassuring. There is so much you do not know, when you're in your 20s and 30s, and the internet can be confusing and misleading. Elders should be respected and valued, but instead we have the doctrine of individualism and independence - new parents should be 'able to do it THEIR way.' Ah well! - the verdict will be pronounced by their own children, and I think they will realise they did not 'know best', any more than we did.

I agree that teaching people how to find information is the way to go, but sometimes they don’t know that they don’t know.

Our eldest son when a teenager couldn't believe that adult children paid their parents 'board'!!
He was scandalised and said 'you have to pay for living in your own house! That's ridiculous!' ?

A fork does not have to be used in a particular way and may have a design evolved for meat and fish. There's no reason not to use it in the American manner especially with baked beans, say. We don't all live in Downton Abbey!

They watch too much American tv and films. For example Friends and Schitts Creek.

I was fitting together a ‘Billy’ bookcase the other day (IKEA)….. and now it’s very easy , but with my old hands…not so! My granddaughter and my sil came in to where I was and asked if they could help. Very gratefully handed over the Allen key to sil to finish…. In the meantime the granddaughter had got the second flatpack open and was putting it together faster than me ….she’s 10!
And she’s always there when I’m struggling with technology!! Each generations has its merits. ….if they took on board every generations teaching …their poor brains would explode! They need to know what’s necessary for the age they live in!

Shelflife

I notice young people don't hold / use a knife and fork in a way I consider proper. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but knives and forks are designed to be held in a certain way. No big deal I recognize that but I wonder why?

It’s not just young people who do this. I hate to see people holding their cutlery like a pen, but I’m probably an old fogey. It just looks wrong and the knife won’t cut properly.

Biscuitmuncher

Caught my daughters boyfriend opening a sachet of silica gel to sprinkle on his crisps

Oh no. That reminds me of the comedian whose name escapes me telling a joke about buying a new microwave and thinking the sachet of silica gel was a free ready meal ?

Fuse boxes apply to the electrical wiring in your house. A fuse in a plug applies only to that gadget - if the fuse in the plug goes, it won’t work anywhere.

What’s weird to me is when someone holds their knife and fork in the opposite hands to what is accepted practice. I’m not talking about left-handed people. I don’t know how they manage to cut things, but maybe they’re eating things that don’t need cutting, so the fork is in the right hand (which I often do when it’s appropriate) and the knife in the left hand is just for show!

My son told me he had to Google how to fill in a cheque as he hadn't written one for years!

It doesn't suprise me that a young woman didn't know there was a fuse in a plug.

I would not have known either as the UK is, as far as I know the only country that has that system.

The rest of us have fuse boxes - the new ones you just move a lever back up again if a fuse blows and everything starts working again.

As for what the young don't know: some is is our fault for not having told them these things, others are things they have never, or not yet, needed to know.