Do you have a child with no common sense?

[Ratpack]

I am seeing this BIG time with our DD (8) right now AND also in my 4h grade students. YOU CAN'T TEACH COMMON SENSE, so how do I get them to understand "simple things" that everyone should know how to do or what to do?

I feel so sorry for this small generation coming up...they seemed to be spoon fed for everything that they can't think on their own anymore.

Lunch choices are up on the wall: "What do you want for lunch today?"- simple question, right? Well, I get..."I don't know...my mom didn't tell me what to choose today. Can I call her?" HOLY COW!!!!

 

[mamacatnv]

My DH is an Engineer and I don't get him or his co-workers of course they don't get me either. Their sense of humor is rather odd to say the least and their social skills leave something to be desired

I describe engineers as Labrador Retrievers: Loveable and loyal as the day is long, thick headed and not a lick of common sense.

 

[JR6ooo4]

I can not tell you how many times people call our office and while looking at a copy of our survey they can not find the order number. Even when I tell them :lower left hand corner" and they respond with my license number and I say "that was in the lower right corner, the order number is in the lower left"

Silence............ for what seems like minutes.


Mikeeee

 

[mickeyfan2]

My DH is an Engineer and I don't get him or his co-workers of course they don't get me either. Their sense of humor is rather odd to say the least and their social skills leave something to be desired

I describe engineers as Labrador Retrievers: Loveable and loyal as the day is long, thick headed and not a lick of common sense.

HAY!!!! I am an engineer and I have tons of common sense. BTW most people who don't know I am an engineer will argue with me that I am not an engineer because I am not like them.

 

[Amlee]

OGL! This is so my youngest brother. He doesn't have the good sense it takes to get out of the rain, but give him something to take apart and fix it will be done. He finds nothing funny and if he does they rest of us are left going HUH? He is so serious all the time it drives me NUTS!!

Something else he does and my mother is the same way. If there is a problem and something needs to be fixed. They will both go the long way around to fix it. I swear this is my BIGGEST pet peeve!!

 

[Caropooh]

Yep, this would be DD12! Smart as a whip when it comes to book sense, but NO common sense! I've always figured that her brain is going so fast ahead of her, that it doesn't stop and take time to think of the small stuff.
DD7 is the same to a point, but she will remind DD12 of things and figure other things out quicker.

 

[Nicolepa]

Anyone have this problem?

I had this EXACT conversation with my 6 yo last month, only it was her rain jacket. She gets in the car and we are 1/2 way home on a Friday and she tells me she forgot her jacket on the playground. I asked her why she didn't go back and get it. I didn't notice it fell off.

 

[nuke]

We can be looking directly at my brother and talking to him and you just know it's not registering. His mind is processing something else. Then about 10 minutes later he answers you when we've already moved on in the conversation.

 

[snowwite]

I have this 13year old that is going through what I have decided to call a "I Like Peaches" phase.

As in you can be standing right in front of him, look him square in the eye, and ask something like "Brad, have you done your homework yet?"

pause pause pause
blank look

"Brad?"

pause pause pause

Kid looks back at you and replies with some totally random phrase similar to:

"I REALLY like peaches."

I honestly hope this is just a phase and he isn't going to be like this forever.

My DS does this ALL the time!. Now I say in my best TV corespondent voice, Here's is Jeremy checking in from the Planet of Random Thought!"

 

[snowwite]

HAY!!!! I am an engineer and I have tons of common sense. BTW most people who don't know I am an engineer will argue with me that I am not an engineer because I am not like them.

My DH is an engineer(see my tag) and is wicked smart but lacks common sense. I think a lot of brilliant people are like that because you cant teach common sense.

 

[mamacatnv]

HAY!!!! I am an engineer and I have tons of common sense. BTW most people who don't know I am an engineer will argue with me that I am not an engineer because I am not like them.

Exactly! Have you considered career counseling?

 

[rcraw45425]

Oh yeah, I have one like that. She can write her entire Social Studies report on my laptop, then send it to herself in an email so that she can print it on another computer, but she can't remember to empty her lunch sack out so that the dog doesn't snack.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

My DH is an Engineer and I don't get him or his co-workers of course they don't get me either. Their sense of humor is rather odd to say the least and their social skills leave something to be desired

I describe engineers as Labrador Retrievers: Loveable and loyal as the day is long, thick headed and not a lick of common sense.

You just described my brother who is a chemical engineer!
all the brains but nothing else

 

[kellyg403]

Ummm...yeah. My dd18. Sometimes I just don't know what to say. 3 days ago we are driving out of town for a band competition. DH says, I wonder how soft those bails of cotton are. From the back seat she says "I wouldn't think too soft, they aren't pastuerized yet"...

Okay....

Kelly

 

[JoyG]

My father in law has no common sense (I hope no one I know is reading this ). He also falls into the category of being very book smart.

He was over my house recently and my kids asked him to make them some Eggo waffles.

I had my hands full so I asked him to do it. He got the box out of the freezer and went towards the microwave with it. I said, "No those go in the toaster".

After I got him pointing in the right direction, he opened the box and then asked me should he butter them before putting them in the toaster!! I was like, "uummmm, no!"

I guess I should be happy he didn't try to fit the whole box in there.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

My oldest son who is in his 2nd year of college, majoring in Engineering, has no common sense at all. He is brilliant in college but..........!
When he moved back to college, he had his truck bed filled with stuff, well it started to rain and he stopped at Walmart to get some kind of tarp to cover his things. He has a small Chevy truck. He bought a 40 foot long by 20 foot wide tarp to cover his stuff. He can cover his whole truck twice with some extra.

 

[Caropooh]

Just got an example of DD12 today!
I was going to put some cookies in the oven when she called from school. She normally takes the activity bus home, but wanted to know if I'd pick her up instead. I first told her I was about to put some cookies in the oven, but then told her I'd pick her up. I pick her up and then we went to pick up DD7. We then went to get DD12's glasses adjusted. We were gone just about an hour. On the way home, DD12 asks be if I'd put the cookies in before I left! I just looked at her and told her, 'yep, they've been cooking an hour now. They're sure going to be yummy.'

 

[mrsheppo]

This describes my DS to a T. He is wickedly book smart, majoring in physics in college and working on nuclear research projects. But try to get him to check the oil in his car and he is totally lost. Has no common sense whatsoever but we love him dearly.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

about the OP lol.

you know, i've noticed that really smart kids, do the STUPIDEST things. i think it sort of balances things out in the world lol.

my neice is 11 years old and she's a very smart kid she's done well in school.....up until now. she doesn't hand in homework assignments, she's been caught smoking, stealing, she's gotten into a fist fight and she's gotten kicked out of a classroom because she kept arguing with the teacher(and those last 2 things happened within a week of eachother).

i don't get why she's doing these things.....well......maybe i do a bit. her mom isn't really the "best" mom ever...but i'm sure you're much better anyway.

kids do stupid things sometimes. they don't know any better. gotta remember, their attention spans are shorter than ours, so your daughter probably forgot she just took it off and left it there and didn't remember until she got home.

i hope it's there when she gets back!

 

[Evil Genius]

yep, dsd is like this. Really a smart kid, but man I really wonder what she's thinking sometimes. DH and I just look at each other and shake our heads.