What skills have been lost

[Billy's lad]

I am a builder and have had three 18yo lads work for me over the summer , two of them dont have an ounce of common sense falling for old pranks such as go and get a tub of elbow grease etc etc

Two are attending University and one isnt destined for that One lad who was from the less fortunate background was quite good and would hand you tools as you needed them and thought ahead I would have kept him on in a flash

The other in his final year studying history with no clue what he was intending to do at the end was willing ,very polite but as much use as a chocolate teapot , quite worrying that at 18 he still couldnt use a broom to sweep up properly and had never pushed a wheelbarrow or dug a hole

The final one who I have kept on for the Autmn until he goes snowboarding for three months is again willing but thick as two short planks nice guy and good fun to be around

None of them have ever experienced banter or know how to handle a bit of barracking , ( i will not tolerate bullying )

They have no skills which I would consider basic at this point in their lives eg sweep up how to carry bags how to shovel , use a hoover I could go on

My conclusion is that the two from the more fortunate backgrounds have never had to do any real tasks at home , interestingly both fathers I know
The other lad from a single mother and less fortunate background had much more about him and wanted to get on and I am sure if he watched me wire a plug up with a knife from the kitchen drawer he would have been more than capable of doing this himself

So there you are my skill that has been lost is wiring up a plug with a bread knife or similar

[KevinM67]

As for Kelvin, he's a cheeky little whippersnapper and a stirrer

POT, KETTLE.........

And, good previous post Rary.

[Nicos]

When I was a nipper, father taught me how to play a comb using a piece of thin paper and a comb.
I've not tried to do it for years!...nor did I teach my children.
A lost skill perhaps?
No idea if I could still do it

[Nicos]

Yey!!!...just found this...for those of you tempted to try it out.....

https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-make-...-12172752.html

Good working class instrument from bygone days eh???

[KevinM67]

When I was a nipper, father taught me how to play a comb using a piece of thin paper and a comb.
I've not tried to do it for years!...nor did I teach my children.
A lost skill perhaps?
No idea if I could still do it

Yeh, my Dad used to get my brother and I doing that.

That's just reminded me - as a young lad we used to make go-karts, or 'geegs' as they were known where I was from in Scotland.
Planks of wood, pram wheels bolted on with the front ones able to swivel, and guided with a bit of rope/washing line.

Find yourself a hill, then go for it....

[veggiechicken]

We made those too but we called them Bogeys
I wallpapered mine with Cowboy & indian wallpaper (probably not allowed to say that now!) then set off to the nearest steep hill, dragging it behind me.
Sat in it, pushed off down the hill and crashed into the wall at the bottom
I'd made the plank between the front wheels too wide to be able to steer it round corners!
Funny how our parents let us do things like this - accidents were part of growing up. I learnt from my bump to modify the design and make a "racer".

[KevinM67]

When I was posting I couldn't remember the other thing we called them - yes, a bogey !!!

Cheers for that.

[JanieB]

Comb and paper. That was before soft loo paper, we used Bronco or J3y3s. Sorry I don’t seem to be allowed to spell the 2nd one properly.

[burnie]

A walk round a supermarket, looking in the packs(especially in the freezers), then look in folks shopping trollies, seems folk can't peel tatties or use a fork, frozen mashed potatoes?

[lottie dolly]

Kids learning how to clean their own shoe
and how to save up money

[rary]

Yeh, my Dad used to get my brother and I doing that.

That's just reminded me - as a young lad we used to make go-karts, or 'geegs' as they were known where I was from in Scotland.
Planks of wood, pram wheels bolted on with the front ones able to swivel, and guided with a bit of rope/washing line.

Find yourself a hill, then go for it....

I think that was also a form of birth control as once the child was out the pram the older children wanted the wheels to make a bogey, therefore removing the temptation to fill it again not many folk could afford to buy a new pram and if the empty ones were being used as a cart there were none to be bought second hand

[DWSmith]

Remember that people say its the purse that dictates what we get, by that I mean if you (and I am not meaning you personally DW) stop buying something the manufacturer's will change things, and yes there are things that I will not purchase because of I do not agree how or where they are manufactured, even though they may be cheaper (don't let folk know that it could destroy my reputation) perhaps that is a skill that has been lost. Telling the manufacturer's what we want, rather than them telling us what we need

Agreed but individually we don't have much power. If many of us joined forces we could possibly make some changes. I think that's the power behind consumer reviews.

[Alison]

On a more serious note I do know how to turn a shirt collar and have done so in the past, and any sewing to be done in the house both my wife and I will do it and its by hand as we do not have a sewing machine, but then hand sewing was a skill before machines were invented and its not the young folk that I think are responsible for the skills to be lost it each and every one of us who throw a perfectly good shirt away and go and buy a new one, you can put anything in place of the shirt, and as for the counting most folk have experienced when a person had to use a machine to check the counting as they are losing the skill of mental arithmetic, and to say that this thread is knocking younger folk you surly don't want me to knock the older folk as most of the ones older than me are dead, I hope that if you have a skill you try to pass it on so that its not lost

I totally agree that we should mend stuff and personally hate cheap, throw away, disposable products. However as it's something that you say you can do yourself and appear to want doing, why on earth didn't you just do it? The statement about it being something women used to do was quite frankly irritating and nothing to do with lost skills. If my OH needs to mend his shirt he'll do it himself as he's perfectly capable, the chances of skills being lost is far more likely if they're seen as women's chores.

[DWSmith]

Ouch!

[1Bee]

I'll tell you what IS stupid - the curriculum insisting on teaching my six year old 'joined up writing' before he can with confidence form his letters. I'm not sure cursive handwriting is a key life skill for a 6 year old...

I think sometimes we have a nostalgia for past things that forgets that they were that way because they had to be.... not for pleasure or recreation. I love maps, I love to read maps and can navigate and take a bearing etc. But why would it really be a problem if in future we're better at programming a sat nav or using google maps?

I don't iron, but that's because life's too short... ;-)

Our old washing machine we repaired ourselves three times. It lasted 17 years. I've also repaired our range cooker twice.

I dance north-west clog morris. As far as I can see there's plenty of younger people taking it up and carrying the flag. Or the hankie.

Among my friends, who are mostly twenty years older, or ten years younger, I don't know anyone who doesn't have a sewing machine. I have two.

As a child I was tramatised having to dust with my Dad's worn out y-fronts. I'm quite happy to dust with my kids' old vests, though.

In my family/friends, homemade is coveted far more than shop-bought. The first year I gave gifts to my new friend's young daughters, I made a hanger for hair clips and a pencil roll out of pretty fabric for them. They frequently wear clothes their mum and friends have made or knitted for them. It's not rare in their circle.

For years, when my late mum asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I asked for more of her hand-beaded baubles. They are treasured possessions.

I can and have, however, built a dry stone wall, laid a hedge, coppiced some woodland, foraged for food, darned, patched, taken things up and in (and I'm a hopeless seamtress!), created and managed a hay meadow, cooked potatoes in a bonfire, slept out on the fells, cooked a Christmas dinner with no electricity, carded, spun and plied a fleece, dyed clothes and changed the brake disks on my car.

We CAN peel tatties and use a fork. But putting in a day's work, getting home and getting a tea on the table in the happy window before kids are too tired to co-operate with tea time sometimes entails making sacrifices to pride... (not that I have bought frozen mash, but still...)