One task I was really happy to see in the rearview mirror as a teenager was mowing the lawn; our electical mower shorted out when I was in Middle School and we never replaced it.

Of course, my parents hiring the smoking hot wrestler classmate of mine who mowed in his gymshorts and sneakers was at least as much cause for cheering as not having to do it myself.

When I had my first apartment my mom gave me a how-to manual called something like, "Where's Mom Now that I Need Her?" It had a lot of basic info like how long various foods lasted, doing laundry and stain removal, some basic repairs and living space upkeep, some car stuff (change the oil, this is what a dead battery sound like, etc.). Very useful. So yes there is (or was) a manual. It just came out in the 80s.

I was doing the dinner dishes nightly at 8, but my kids never do the dishes. They do fold laundry, and I am teaching Casper how to use the washer and dryer (Dillo is too short), and they can stir stuff on a burner (we have a gas stove which they are afraid to light), and we're working up to Casper following a recipe by herself. They can vacuum (Dillo is CRAP at it still) and Casper can sweep ok.

I always wanted a How To Be Adult manual for social situations. Sometimes I felt like I was raised in a barn. I actually became sort of obsessed with Miss Manners in my early 20s - look! There is a manual for this stuff! (Not, like, forks - I lived with a Parisian family for a month at 16 and mastered forks - but, like, hostess gifts, and polite chit-chat, and that stuff.)

I did laundry, grocery shopping, gardening, cooking and painting from a young age, but never learned day to day cleaning things. I think mostly because my family didn't really do them. Or possibly because there were so many grown ups in my house it was invisible. But I am pretty sure we only washed and waxed the kitchen floor about once a year, as it involved moving furniture. I understand how to clean, but not when, and I find it frustrating that you have to keep doing it. Sometimes I would be sent away for a few weeks in the summer, and my grandma would clean my room.

Writing a check was the first thing we learned in bank teller training.

I find it frustrating that you have to keep doing it.

Oh yeah. I inherited that one from my mother.

Ellie just turned 8 and when she gets back for Hawaii, I'm going to start her on doing laundry for herself and maybe Sammy, or i guess whatever it takes to fill the washer. I got the soap pod things so there's no mess. I'm still trying to find a good chore for Frisco (5) that he can do well but is actually useful.

I also think they may have stopped teaching envelope writing in school, as well as formatting of a letter. My student workers almost always have to have it explained to them. To me, the funniest is when they address large envelopes in portrait, rather than landscape. And/or when they put the return address where the stamp goes.

Of course, I think I have told you before the problems they have distinguishing manila envelopes from manila folders!

And, one of them didn't know who DAVID BOWIE was!!!!

I have several times had to teach college students how to use a copy machine. Sometimes they pick it up instantly, but other times they seem totally boggled by the whole thing.

Of course, my parents hiring the smoking hot wrestler classmate of mine who mowed in his gymshorts and sneakers was at least as much cause for cheering as not having to do it myself.

What is it about lawn care guys, mine are always hot. (And I usually hire them over the phone or net.) I am paying current guy way too much, but am too lazy/non-confrontational to fire him.

I was super lazy and super messy as a kid, but I still picked up cleaning, cooking, laundry, mending, taking out the trash. I am still not the greatest at anything, but it's more a point of avoiding them than not knowing how to do them.

I wish I were handy, though. I've had a dripping faucet for about 8 months, and I bought the replacement (the cartridges are too corroded to remove and the faucet is too), but I find I am too chicken to do it myself, and too cheap to hire a plumber just for that.

Where I work, the professors also seem boggled by the copy machine!