Time and dedication is critical to learning new skills.
We spend a lot of time trying to learn new techniques. Quarantine has only accelerated this for a lot of people, for sure, with a million sourdough starters going unused while a billion rolls of yarn have gone unknitted. Not everyone can master new abilities, let alone common, everyday skills that seemingly everyone else can do.
Reddit user, u/memetimeboiiii, wanted to hear what you struggle with when they asked:
What is a common skill you just can't seem to master?
Getting Stuff Done Around The Household
How do other people get things done around the house? Like a human being? Not everyone had a Home Economics class made available to them in school, so some household skills got lost in the shuffle.
How Do They Make It Look So Easy On Cooking Shows?
Getting all the components of a meal ready at the same time.
Same. I recommend using the "keep warm" setting on your oven &/or slow cooker if you don't have a warming drawer on your oven.
Gotta make sure you do all of the prep and measuring things out before starting to cook. Nothing like having to run into the pantry 10 minutes in to get something and throwing you off.
...So We Don't All Just Stuff It In A Drawer?
Folding a fitted sheet
Ok so here's the move. Stick ya hands in a corner, any two corners, bring em together, and just skdjgnskakzhe real fast in a circular motion. Condensed ball of sheet, more than acceptable.
So You Just Lay Down...And Go To Sleep?
I'm seeing lots of people post sleeping issues on here. For me, unless there's something extra going on, like illness or jet lag, I cannot fall asleep unless under optimal conditions. That means I must be on a flat, padded surface, laying down, with as little noise as possible, no noticeable light brighter than dark gray dimness, with some freedom to move, and in most cases curled up on my side because I'm really bad at sleeping on my back. Also usually can't nap during the day no matter how tired I am.
Not Following This One...
I still can't put on a bra without putting it on backwards to do the clasp. I'm incapable.
Is this not how we all do it?
Tripping Over Your Doing-Things-In-Front-Of-Other-People Feet
Are other people around? Watching you? Judging you? Waiting for you to do something?
That's the worst, isn't it?
How Do Talk Good?
How to socialize in groups of new people.
I'm ok with socializing, just not in a setting where I don't know anyone.
No, Really. Me No Speaky That Good Linguistics?
Talking to people. "Smalltalk."
I'm fine with people I already know, or have lots in common with, can talk for 10 hours a day about nothing. but when it comes to strangers?
what the hell is going on. why are you talking to me, what do you want. please just be direct. I don't want to play mind games. i don't want to guess what your intentions are. just tell me. how can i help you? drives me insane.
Circle It Back, Keep It At A 45 Degree Angle, Annnd You've Bumped The Curb
Parallel parking. It's not that I can't do it, it's that I can't do it if anybody else is around (usually the case if you're parallel parking, in my experience).
I can't do it and I refuse to try if there is anything solid that I could hit in the vicinity...trash can, cone, other car, etc. Add an audience and it's a double nope.
Sounds Like You Really "Dropped The Ball."
I cannot hold a bowling ball. I don't have any physical disabilities, I'm of average strength and coordination. I cannot hold a bowling ball. When I go bowling, strangers film videos of my "form." I have no idea what I'm doing wrong despite it having been explained and demonstrated to me. I cannot hold a bowling ball.
Life Is Hard, Huh?
Then there are those like skills that don't compute, no matter how much you try. Things that seem everyday simple for everyone else, yet, for some reason, your brain functions just don't match up to what you're trying to do.
Still Don't Quite Understand It
Where to put full stops and commas, I've never got called out for it and got descent grades - but for the life of me I still can't wrap my head around the rules behind it.
In year 13 I even asked my english teacher where to put full stops and commas and she looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the planet lol.
Who Has Brainspace For All Those Words?
Spelling. Still need to use autocorrect to spell some words. When I was in elementary school my parents use to make me look up every word I spelled wrong on my homework in a dictionary to learn to spell it correctly. It didn't work obviously. I can read perfectly fine, I just have trouble spelling.
Feel The Rhythm In Your Fee-And You're On The Floor
Dancing.
My body just can't coordinate with my scumbag brain to be able to dance.
Same. It's awful. Sometimes when I'm alone I'll try to dance and just feel the music. It FEELS awkward and awful. I can't even imagine how it looks.
Just Put Your Hands On The Floor Nice And-Now You're On The Floor, Too
F-cking cartwheels.
How did every girl at school know how to do them?! I was like, hell no. I'm gonna break my neck. That was when I was like seven. Now I am 30. Same stance.
Put Your Lips Together, And...
I can't whistle.
Whisper the letter Q in English to yourself. Notice the whistly part of the letter, keep experimenting with how your lips are puckered at that moment and how you blow the air out. Keep doing that.
And Here We Have The-OW!
Detecting the presence of a coffee table without using my shin
Yeeeeeep. Add in super pale skin + anemia and you're left with perpetually black and blue shins. Hawt. 🤦🏼♀️
How Awful...
Being able to fall asleep during the day for a power nap. I just can't. My brain won't settle down.
If I'm going to nap it's a 3 hour process for me. My wife can power nap in 15 minutes, but it takes me that long just to go to sleep.
Be patient. Take your time. Listen to people who know more than you do. You can always learn something new, no matter how late in life you've started.
Except for cartwheels. Those probably have an expiration date on when your hips can handle them.
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