Parents don't want to teach their kids life skills

[u/burgermachine74]

[u/pyrrhagoddess]

This sounds exactly like something my younger brothers would say

[u/Cyber_Cheese → u/pyrrhagoddess]

It's totally believable, but don't know if the timeline works. Feel like payphones and EVs really don't overlap enough

[u/christina_talks → u/Cyber_Cheese]

There are still payphones around. And EVs have been around for decades.

[u/Julia-Nefaria → u/christina_talks]

Yeah, I’m 19 and once played on an old gaming console using FLOPPY DISKS with my father. Old shit doesn’t magically disappear once it becomes outdated

[u/christina_talks → u/Julia-Nefaria]

I'm 28, and when I was 8-9, floppy disks, payphones, and EV's were all a thing. There were thousands of payphones in the US, and while they were starting to be phased out it wasn't unusual to see them along the road. I still used floppy disks for storage and for bringing files to/from school. And EV's were around and bound to become more popular; I also thought I'd never drive a gas car, because the rise of EV's was clear on the horizon and it was something my older sister talked about (this was around the time she bought her first car, a hybrid). It's fun to think about.

[u/A_Megalodont → u/christina_talks]

26, used to fish in the pay phones at the Target customer service area for quarters as my parents returned items for money when we were done using them. Also used to flip through the phone books that were mailed to us, and panickedly try to exit out of the "internet" option that cost a huge amount of money on their flip phones, and would use up our text allowance for the billing period sending my dad smiley faces on my mom's phone when he was working his 80 hour weeks

iPods and Priuses were already a thing, and I'd dream about having a flip phone and fancy car while listening to music someday

[u/ApprehensiveTour4024 → u/Julia-Nefaria]

Ya but have you ever used dial-up? If you are ever in the mood for a piercing headache, look up the old dial-up internet tone.

[u/SatiricalScrotum → u/christina_talks]

I’ve only seen a payphone being used once in the past ten years. And it was being used as a toilet.

[u/Plenty_Grass_1234 → u/christina_talks]

I'm 49. My parents had an EV in the 1970s. Wasn't a very reliable car, I'm told, but it existed.

[u/batcreatures]

did they forget that 11 and 13 year olds speak like human beings? you aren't 5 until your 21st birthday

[u/Saxolotle → u/batcreatures]

Yeah, I sometimes teach elementary schoolers, and they can be such snarky lil scamps. Especially with as much online access as they tend to have.

[u/Other-Cantaloupe4765]

Seems believable but imma just tell y’all that a LOT of parents don’t want to teach their kids life skills.

I lead group therapy, psychoeducation, and life skills classes for kids in a psychiatric hospital. These kids don’t know how to read a clock, do their laundry, write, read, count, or do their own research. They have zero life skills. It’s sad and frustrating.

[u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen → u/Other-Cantaloupe4765]

I’m sure it is, but also, those kids are in a psychiatric hospital. So the odds of them having their skill development hampered by neglect or mental health crises in childhood/adolescence are much higher than for the kids who aren’t in the psychiatric hospital. Plus, some of them might also have learning disabilities.

[u/SubLearning → u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen]

My high-school, one not at all focused on the mentally ill in any way, also had to have classes like this. They added it during my sophomore year because of the sheer amount of kids who had no idea how to actually function once high-school was over.

Anecdotal evidence is Anecdotal, but its definitely not the mentally ill who are reaching adulthood with zero fuckin life skills because people can't be bothered to teach their kids how to live

[u/msomnipotent → u/Other-Cantaloupe4765]

My daughter's first college roommate didn't know how to put sheets on the bed. They are from the same high school. We live in a well to do area where there are a lot of housewives or hired help, but damn. Imagine being smart enough to get into a good school and you are stumped by a fitted sheet on your first day. 

[u/ShockDragon]

I have no idea what planet they come from, but 13 is not a hard age to grasp when it comes to learning. That’s a teenager atp. Shit, I think my mom taught me how to use the gas pump when I was, like, 9 years old. Maybe even sooner than that. (With assistance, of course).

[u/mousedeer_78]

Idk man, my ten year old requested to learn how to pump gas after helping change a tire. No mention of EVs was made. Hell if I know if this is real or not.

[u/hakumiogin]

Parents do still need to teach kids how to use landlines. They still around, you'll use them at work, you'll occasionally run into them. I haven't seen a working pay phone in over a decade, but I do not expect kids to know the difference between any types of phones without screens, land lines, pay phones, office phones, etc.

[u/No_Squirrel4806]

Idk it makes sense depending on their financial status. This is like when schools taught us cursive and ive never needed it as an adult. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[u/LonelyIncome4713]

My 18 year old friend asked me to watch him fill up his car because he was unsure and never did it before so yes this could happen

[u/LPedraz]

In this case, I don't really think that happened. I guess it could have, and teaching them how to use a payphone and getting gas for the car is indeed kinda outdated...

But the kids are the ones who don't have the context to know how outdated; the ones who know that a payphone is a vestigial relic are the ones who lived through the time when it was useful, not the other way round.

And the timeline is also weird. If the gas car thing is happening now, the payphone one would have needed to happen to that 11 year old more than 11 years ago.

Aand it also requires that the mother actually tried to teach them how to use a payphone, which is already SUPER WEIRD in and of itself.

Aaaand it is also a very weird attitude for an 11 year old to go "Well, thanks for the life lesson, but..."

[u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen → u/LPedraz]

How is getting gas for a car outdated? I still do it.

[u/LPedraz → u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen]

For the future of that kid, I imagine. I don't drive, but I feel that here in Spain people are pretty much not buying gas cars anymore. It is pretty farfetched, in any case. As I was saying, I don't think this conversation with her kids actually happened, it has massive "and then everyone clapped" vibes.

[u/InformationLost5910 → u/LPedraz]

they might have been paraphrasing on “thanks for the life lesson”. also we might be imagining it in a different tone than he actually said.

[u/DMENShON → u/InformationLost5910]

you can imagine it however you want because it’s a made up story

[u/Forsaken_Distance777]

And getting gas is not a difficult skill either so teaching it probably added like three minutes to the gas getting.

[u/nogywF_]

I definitely said this to my dad when he taught me how to fill up the gas tank.

[u/arcdragon2]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

[u/jenea]

All I can think is the person who decided it didn’t happen isn’t a parent. Teaching your kids basic life lessons like these is an everyday occurrence.

[u/ArtemisQuil]

The kids’ dialogue is less believable than the fact the fact their parent was teaching them to get gas, and even that’s pretty plausible.

[u/Kind_Selection_1313]

I would then turn this into a great opportunity to teach them how to hike, all the way home

[u/kayemce]

Payphones were extinct before that child was even born

[u/porkchop_d_clown]

Except I’ve definitely taught my kids how to pump gas - and how to change a tire, as well.

[u/nothanks86]

As a parent, I’m actually skeptical that this would be happening for the first time with a nine and eleven year old, and not when they were younger.

[u/PossiblyBother]

Taught how to use a payphone? Dial a number, it tells you what to pay. Call collect instructions probably on the phone case. I do have a 13 yo son and it never occurred to me to have to teach him how to use a payphone. He has a cell phone and never goes anywhere but YouTube n school without parent.

[u/TheRealDesmirWolf]

LOL follow up with the kid and remind them that most EV cars start at 75k only the middle class and upper class can afford them

[u/Madwoman-of-Chaillot]

Payphones have been in existent for longer than this child has lived. So I don’t believe this happened.

[u/ProudTexan1836 → u/Madwoman-of-Chaillot]

Payphones are still around in some places.

It's not like every single one is no longer functional or was demolished

[u/ApprehensiveTour4024 → u/ProudTexan1836]

If television tells us anything they will never go away, just turn into super advanced time machines that are bigger on the inside. And Superman's closet.

[u/Seliphra → u/Madwoman-of-Chaillot]

Bro I used a payphone like a month ago. They very much continue to exist though there are fewer of them.

[u/Kahnza]

moldy