If you’ve ever doubted how smart, skilled and well-adjusted you are you need only read about these people who somehow managed to make it through life without understanding the basics! And let’s all take this Reddit thread as a reminder of why coddling kids and doing everything for them does nothing for them in the long run!

My mom can’t remember whether blue or red is associated with hot or cold. When she’s in the car and wants to turn on the AC, she just randomly sets the dial to one side or the other and waits for the air to come on to see whether she’s right or not. (montereyo)

I’ve met more than one person who doesn’t get fire alarms. When my husband and I first got an apartment together, we were cooking and we burned something; the smoke caused the smoke alarm to start beeping. Instead of opening the window to let the smoke out (like a normal person), he calmly walked to the door and began putting on his shoes to go outside and wait for the fire department to come – because he thought that when the smoke alarm goes off, that’s what you do. After all, why else would we have gone through all those fire drills in elementary school? (montereyo)

My college roommate asked me how to make a sandwich. Like how to actually put mayonnaise on the bread and slice a tomato. He was 22 and had recently been accepted to medical school. God help us. (nedguychai)

A friend of mine tried to cook rice in the kettle because she understood it involved heat and water. That was her logical conclusion.

She’s 27. (FUCKING_EVERYTHING)

I still tie my Girlfriends shoelaces for her. shes picked it up now ( almost) but she was never taught as a kid because her parents were never around. (captainlolcano)

My boyfriend cannot understand anything but the exact time in exact numbers. If you say “quarter past 4” he has no idea what you’re talking about. Also, refuses to learn. (vbm923)

I have one friend who is ridiculous with this kind of thing. He’s 28, and the most notable thing I remember is that he was planning to buy a bouquet of tulips for a girl a week before his date, because he thought they didn’t die. His reasoning was that they stay alive all summer in the ground. (kaitmeister)

This is my first post ever but my story is too ridiculous not to share.

So, my husband and I were living with his parents for a while after he lost his job and his 30 year old sister was also living there while she finished nursing school and whatnot. She was an abhorrently messy person and I had the pleasure of sharing a bathroom with her. Now, she had always had an extremely heavy period so “that time of the month” was a literal bloody mess everywhere. One morning I wake up for work, sleepy eyed /grumpy, walk to the bathroom and sit down on the toilet. As I am sitting there, I notice drops of blood all over the bathroom floor. Then I glance over to the wastebasket and notice it is overflowing with unwrapped, bloody, disgusting pads and they are spilling out everywhere. I am so angry because I have yelled at her for this once before. I get up to grab the Clorox wipes and then I see I have also SAT in blood she left on the toilet (mind you, I am very sleepy and hardly had the time to come to my senses yet). I shriek and THEN I see that I have also STEPPED in it as well because there were drops of blood on the bathmat that I didn’t see and I tracked it ALL OVER THE FUCKING HOUSE! I started screaming at her from the bathroom to come clean up the fucking murder scene and to take more care of the way she leaves the bathroom and you know what she says? “I don’t need you telling me what to do.” Excuse me?! You are 30 fucking years old!!! I can’t believe I have to tell you that this in the first place! You have had your period for 15 or so years and you STILL don’t know how to wrap up a pad or wipe down a toilet?! And you’re going to be a nurse?? Are you kidding me?! (deanzie)

A few years ago my grandfather had to have a minor operation that made him stay at the hospital overnight. My grandmother (Mid seventies) needed gas on the way home while he was still at the hospital. She pulled into the gas station and had to call my mother to ask how to put gas in the truck. In over 50 years of marriage he never had her get out to fill up the tank. He is a true gentleman. (anon)

I have a friend who refuses to open up beer/pop cans. She says the little tab freaks her out and she can’t handle it. Her bf opens all her cans for her. Whenever she asks me I refuse, hoping she will try for herself, but she just waits until she can find someone else to do it. I swear you could abandon her on an island with a case of pop, and she wouldn’t even try to open it normally. she would be banging it on rocks and shit. (ShawnisMaximus)

I went to a high school that required you to wear a tie every day, and all of the teachers did the same. My freshman year I would get into school pretty early because of an unusual bus situation, and was asked by a teacher to tie his tie for him. See, every day he would loosen it, and hang it on the doorknob. Someone untied it as a prank.

He had been teaching at that school/wearing a tie every day for at least 20 years, and had never learned how to tie one on his own. (therippa)

My ex-girlfriend (29 years old) didn’t know how to open a banana. I had to show her that you pull the stem against the curve. (UncleWeasel)

What have you been surprised to find another adult couldn’t do or didn’t understand?