I have to do the watching the lips thing too. I can still hear the noise that only teenagers are supposed to be able to hear, so my hearing can't be gone, but there's something off about how I hear human voices. As in, I can't understand half of what people are saying to me.

I wish there'd been adulthood classes I could have taken back in my twenties, like Keep Your Car Running and Home Maintainy Stuffs You Actually Need to Do and How Do I 401k and Help the Toilet's Broken.

This is what I'm talking about! Practical shit you've got to do, and rarely does anyone actually teach you how to do it. I've been baffled many times by people not knowing how to, say, pump gas, or plunge a toilet.

What gets me is all the stuff I learned in a DIY house as a kid? Has changed. I totally could not figure out my toilet float/feed. $60 warrantee visit for stupid. I'd never had radiators. Or a house fan. Hell, never even heard of the latter. Regional issues. But I can drywall patch and replace glass in single pane windows and flush a hot water heater like a champ! I have plaster walls and fancy pants factory windows.

YouTube is a great resource for minor home/car repair stuff - I haven't found a problem yet where there isn't a how-to video online showing how to solve it. And then even though half the time I wind up calling in a professional anyway, at least I know what they should be doing once they get here.

I knew college students 18-27, who didn't know how to WASH THEIR CLOTHES.

This is why I make M repeat back instructions to me, even though he's smart, and I am driven that he be taught common sense tasks, like cooking and cleaning properly. Last Xmas, (he was ten then) I washed the bedclothes and was all "OK, make your bed" and he didn't know how to put fitted sheets and pillowcases on. WTF? His mom had maids that come in 2x a month (so glad our child support is spent on maids and we can't pay utilities some months) and we did it together.

Next time, he did it himself, and did an OK job. I refuse to have a part in raising a child who cannot be pretty self-suuficient. Sure, some thing people don't know how to do, but making a bed? Washing clothes? Not knowing how to load and start a dishwasher at 10? I think of all the things I'd been taught at 10 and I boggle.

I know how to change my oil in my car in theory, but I go to Jiffy Lube, that's for fucking sure! Things like that.

I don't understand people who don't TRY. Everyone has a learning curve, but DANG...some people expect someone to do everything for them! But then, I have a need to teach people stuff; I love teaching.

Oh, and sarameg, I'm not dissing you; M's mom is NOT DIY; she was raised well-off and prefers to be waited on hand and foot. And then yells at M for doing things SHE models. ARGH. And she avers I'm an indifferent parental figure. Why -- because he LOVES me? Because my discipline is rational and explanatory and hands-on teaching and making him try things himself with instruction if he's stuck? Sorry to rant -- it's just so...UGH.

I was gonna come here with a Jillifont video, but I prefer this snake one from Gawker: [link] I'm glad I didn't know about that nightmare option when I was a kid.

"Hey, Mr Plumber! Jody on the interTUBE has a different wrench from you! Are you sure you're doing it right??" Being backseat driven by complete strangers who aren't even live must be fun times.

Well, at least it is when I do it.

I've been assuming everyone hears noises and there's some processing delay/decision mechanism that turns them into words--except in scenarios where you accidentally hear that one time they mention half a scandal, and you have to stalk them to find out the other half and you never manage to.

I moved out of the house at 23, and my mother was genuinely surprised that I was immediately able to clean and cook for myself (with the occasional advice call for the latter). The thing is, while I rarely did anything around the house beyond pet care, taking out the trash, and routine straightening up, I understood how to do the other stuff and was just never motivated to do it myself before Supermom stepped in and did it herself. Switched to an environment where my clutter/dirt tolerance was lower than that of everyone else in residence, I turned into Monica Geller.

Found out recently that one of CJ's ARP buddies has never done a load of laundry. His mom does all the wash and irons everything for him. Including his Carhart pants. I used to think she was sane but now I worry.

that snake shit I watched 3 times with my mouth open. That is not even cool. Not even cool.

Some things people don't know how to do aren't regional, though, like address an envelope, or write a check. I got stuck in line at the grocery behind a woman who was teaching a college-age girl how to fill out a check properly. (I think it was her son's GF.) And I got stuck in line at the post office (not on the same day) behind a young woman who'd put her own address in the To field and the recipient's address in the From field, and didn't understand how that was wrong. The clerk later assured me that it was not the first time that had happened.

Oh, and the snake thing is cool! She turned on the light first, then opened the door and headed out. I notice the doors were latch-style handles, though. Bet snakey would've been stymied by turn knobs. (Right? Yeah. Gosh, that snake was huge.)