A Pot of Tea - and a Stamp!

Cocketts · 7 July 2018 at 9:40AM

I had my sister and her family visiting last weekend. In my efforts to reduce plastic usage Chez Lillibet, I have swapped tea bags for 'real tea'.
I was amused when my 25-year old niece (whose turn it was to make the cuppas) admitted that she didn't know how to make tea in a pot!!:rotfl:

I was then reminded of an incident about three weeks ago when my 22-year old daughter had to be told how to go the post office counter and ask for a first class stamp...... :eek:

These may not be 'important' skills to teach this generation but what else might they need to know - or do we assume they know?

Correctly pegging out the washing on the line springs to mind!

Lilli

EDITED TO ADD: I'm not sure my daughter would know how to write a cheque either:o

[Deleted User] · 7 July 2018 at 9:45AM

Pulling the curtains in hot weather on the rooms currently with the sun on them and then swapping to the other side of the house as the sun moves round and opening windows on the shade side?

How cook basic meals from cheaper cuts of meat if you eat it.

How to keep a basic store cupboard and how to date mark things in it and rotate the stock so nothing goes out of date.

How to repair clothes and basics like sewing on a button, darning too and giving them the make do and mend mentality in the first place.

I'm sure there is an endless list, if I come up with anything else I'll add it on later xxx.

jfdi · 7 July 2018 at 9:49AM

Examples from recent months....

Sterilising baby bottles without an electric steriliser.
Unbunging a sink without !!!8216;Mr Muscle!!!8217; or similar, never even heard of a plunger!
Baking basic cakes without a recipe.
Making a phone call without a mobile....
Writing a cheque!

That!!!8217;ll do for now!

vulpix · 7 July 2018 at 9:54AM

Agree to all the above.Would like to add washing up instead of a dish washer,cooking in general,and mopping a floor with mop and bucket.Witnessed my 16 year old mopping the floor the other day!She just randomly jabbed the floor with a sopping mop,and she mops the floor at work in a cafe!

monnagran · 7 July 2018 at 10:14AM

Doing the washing in the sink and wringing it out by hand. (was going to say "fair hands," but after doing this for a year they are very far from fair.) My son was astonished to see me doing this.

Washing machine on the horizon once I've moved house.

Callie22 · 7 July 2018 at 10:18AM

vulpix wrote: »

Agree to all the above.Would like to add washing up instead of a dish washer,cooking in general,and mopping a floor with mop and bucket.Witnessed my 16 year old mopping the floor the other day!She just randomly jabbed the floor with a sopping mop,and she mops the floor at work in a cafe!

To be fair, I think this has long been a skill that's been lacking

About twenty years ago I worked in catering and a lot of our staff were 16-21 year olds doing a summer job. None of them knew how to mop a floor, we ended up running a training session as they'd literally dip the mop in the bucket and slop it onto the floor, which was a real safety hazard.

Re: tea leaves, this was also something I didn't know as a child. I once made my grandad a pot of tea with leaves and he ended up with a very 'chewy' cup of tea, as I just assumed that they dissolved in the water! And I also had to write my first cheque in nearly eight years the other day, amusingly I'm still only half-way through the only cheque book I've ever owned!

Cocketts · 7 July 2018 at 12:24PM

DD probably wouldn't know what 'hospital corners' were either......

bouicca21 · 7 July 2018 at 1:08PM

It must be at least 15 years ago that I discovered that lots of kids were so used to being ferried round by their parents that they did not know how to work out a route (even a simple one) using public transport and couldn't read a timetable.

Prinzessilein · 7 July 2018 at 1:16PM

I have mentioned previously on Old Style about a woman I saw buying a new pair of trainers for her lad....the reason for the new pair?...the lace had snapped on the old pair!!!!...The concept of buying new laces and relacing the old pair had not occurred to them!

I have seen younger relatives shocked speechless at the way in which both Mum and I could rustle up home baked scones warm and scrummy in less than half an hour (quicker than driving to Tescos, queueing up, and driving back!)

I used to teach...and saw teenagers unable to read an analogue clock....they COULD tell the time, but only in digital format...two teenage relatives were given watches for Christmas, and pointed out they never wore them...they rely on their phones for the time.

Cleaning shoes 'properly' is a skill modern society seems to lack....I remember knocking off the dirt, rubbing in the polish, leaving it to absorb into the leather , then a different brush to buff the shoes...and a cloth for the final polish...we had a proper shoe-cleaning kit for the job....today a quick wipe is all that is done.

Oh and with Summer Holidays almost here....one skill that teenagers (and younger) seem to lack is how to entertain themselves for more than 30 seconds!...and if there was a powercut and computers/games consoles were unavailable I am certain half my young relatives would die of boredom within the first half hour!

I KNOW I am no longer young....in my 50s....but so many of these 'basic' skills were taught at home...and at Brownies/Guides...we learned to make a proper pot of tea (and I served mine for my Brownie Hostess badge on a tray with a traycloth I had embroidered myself *smug!)...how to hand-wash your own socks (boy were those grass stains a job to get out by hand!)...sewing on a button (and ensuring it STAYED on in future!)

nursemaggie · 7 July 2018 at 1:19PM

My son only moved out a couple of months ago. He had to call me to ask how to clean glass i.e. the bathroom mirror. I thought I had taught him everything.

There was a mop in the store cupboard in his flat. I asked if he wanted showing how to use it. No he preferred the old fashioned way. I can assure you there is not water on the floor when he is finished.

Brambling · 7 July 2018 at 1:27PM

I taught my nephews the 'proper' way to hang washing hang tops from the bottom and bottoms from the top and my sister puts her washing on the line :rotfl:

Reading a washing label on clothes a couple of us were teaching the young guys in the office last week that those weird symbols meant something

changing a electric plug, although to be honest I'm not sure the last time i did one.

Reading a map

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A Pot of Tea - and a Stamp!

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