What were your kids NOT able to do until an embarrassingly late age?

[Gumbo4x4]

My 7.5 yr old still can't quite manage to wipe her butt very well. I clean a lot of underwear as a result. It's the final frontier of potty training and I think that I should have a party once she finally figures it out.

Neither kid (7.5 & 9.5 yr olds) know how to ride a bike without training wheels. We just haven't taken the time to do it. Between homework, swim practice, dinner, and getting ready for the next day, there is no time left over.

I cannot whistle and I've tried many times.

7.5 yr old finally just mastered tieing shoe laces.

DD1 featured pretty heavily in this thread, but I couldn't think of anything DD2 was really bad at until you mentioned this. Oh brother, wipe & wipe until brown leaves town, girl!!! Don't give it one quick swipe and hope for the best!!

On the flip side, she gets good & clean in the shower. DW caught her in there with the washcloth - she had it between her legs, one hand gripped on a corner in front, one hand gripped on a corner in back, and just sawing away like she was trying to cut a log with the washcloth!

 

[PollyannaMom]

For DS, it wasn't shoe laces, but belts. He always had elastic-waist pants when he was little, and didn't learn to buckle until really late.

For me it was driving. I just was not ready at 16. (I finally learned in college.)

 

[Tasha228]

My daughter can't get eye drops in her eyes. We can't even get them in for her. I don't even want to remember the eye dr visit last year. She was one memorable patient. It's just a horrible fear. She's 17.

Oh I was in my early 20s before I got my drivers license. Lived in New York so never really needed it

I FINALLY learned to put eye drops in by myself...about a year and a half ago. I am 35.

It has always taken people holding me down to do it...even up until I learned to do it myself.

 

[Tasha228]

For everyone who is right handed and trying to teach a left handed person something try sitting directly across from them. If they are looking straight ahead at you, while teaching them to tie their shoes for example, they can exactly mirror your movements which can make it a lot simpler to learn.

I'm a lefty and sometimes trying to learn how to do something like that while simultaneously reversing the movements in your head can be really confusing.

DD9 (only 6 days left of her first decade, I feel old) but she does still believe in Santa Clause. Two Christmases ago I decided to stop trying to work to keep her from finding out, I would just do whatever DD5 needed to keep HER believing and if DD9 found out, oh well. I thought for sure she would figure it out this year. We got the kids an air hockey table for Christmas and that was their gift from Santa. There was a bit of a comedy of errors regarding picking up the table and finding a place to store it where they wouldn't see it before Christmas and it ended up being in my SIL's car for a few days where my DN12 saw it and at the family Christmas party a few days after Christmas commented that the table hadn't come from Santa because it was in their car for a few days. I thought that was it as DD9 commented that the table wasn't from Santa because DN12 said it was in her car. She never did put two and two together though.

She knows the Disney characters and such aren't real, knows TV, movie, and book characters aren't real but still buys the Santa and Toothfairy lines.

Her biological father once told me he believed in Santa until he was 15 but he was not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed. I would think in the next year or two one of her friends at school will tell her or someone will start teasing her about it.

Hello? Are we related?!

I am left handed and that is how my mom FINALLY taught me to tie my shoes. I got it like it was nothing once she sat across from me. I could not reverse it in my head at all when she was doing it beside me.

That being said, it took me forever to learn to use scissors...because teachers kept trying to teach me with left handed scissors. As soon as they let me try with right, I got it. I do most things with both hands but can't write with my right and can't cut with my left.

My dd is almost 11 and still believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. She is not pretending. She truly believes. She is a little naive but I figure she won't believe much longer (same thing I thought 2 years ago lol). She does also know Disney characters and stuff aren't real too.

 

[DisneyOma]

My youngest was pretty old when he figured out how to tie his shoes.
My other ds just recently learned how to swallow pills.
My 18 year old is hopefully getting her license this week.
None of my kids know how to use the house phone. "Which button do i push?" whether they are answering or dialing.

My youngest was stumped by the dial phone in the phone booth outside King's Cross station at Universal, LOL! It was awesome I finally got to embarrass her, after all the times she embarrassed me when I needed her help with my iPhone, etc.

 

[Turn the Page]

My 7.5 yr old still can't quite manage to wipe her butt very well. I clean a lot of underwear as a result. It's the final frontier of potty training and I think that I should have a party once she finally figures it out.

DD5 (6 in 3 weeks) is fully capable of wiping her butt.....she just won't do it. She goes for weeks or months at a time doing great and then one day just decides she doesn't want to do it anymore and doesn't for days on end. Then we have to go through the process of checking her underwear every night and taking toys away if they are unacceptable. She has given herself diaper rash about 4 times since she has been potty trained because she goes so long without wiping. I really just do not understand it.

 

[leebee]

Oh, I'll mention the other thing that sets both my kids aside as 'weird'. Though they both did gymnastics and dance, neither one of them has ever played a team sport, and neither can really throw, catch, hit or kick a ball of any sort. And neither one of them ever had any interest in doing so.

DD22 never played any sports, except for 2 weeks of T-ball when she was 5. She has always been a dancer, and since age 12 her afternoons were spent in the dance studio. She never understood how her friends would complain they didn't get their homework done because they had a couple of hours of soccer practice or a game a couple of hours a week; she was in the studio 4+ hours a day, and usually 6 hours a day on the weekends!

My sympathies to those with kids who have butt-wiping issues. I work in an elementary school, and I SWEAR that one of the school admission requirements should be having arms long enough to reach around and wipe your butt! Ugh and ice!

 

[smokeyblue]

I was thirty before I learned to snap my fingers... now I'm not sure why it was so difficult to learn.

I was always so irritated that I couldn't snap my fingers or whistle when I was a kid. I think I was finally able to snap my fingers when I was like 6 or 7 and I've never really been able to whistle.

My boyfriend never learned to do laundry. When I met him, he was paying someone by the pound to do his laundry! It was like $18 for a medium-sized laundry basket. They did a really nice job folding and put everything on hangers, but I was like come on now! 28 years old and you don't even know how to do laundry? I taught him how and he really embraced it.

 

[debster812]

My husband in left handed and I'm right handed. We were having trouble teaching our kids to tie their shoes and realized that we both do it differently. So, it was decided that my husband would be the only teacher (even though our kids are righties). It went a lot better after that.

Oh, the shoe tying. I'm right handed, but I tie my shoes like a lefty would (yes, I know, VERY bizzare, but I was taught by my dad, who's a lefty). Tried teaching DS for a while, to NO avail. Finally, the cook at his day care center is the one who actually taught him. He's 18 and still does bunny ears and almost always double knots his laces!

 

[acebatonfan]

Can openers are evil for lefties. I also can't tie my shoes the normal way (or do anything else that is designed for a right-handed person). There's so many things where I've simply given up trying to use my left hand and will use my right instead (curse you, can opener).

My high school's gym class had a unit on biking. It was pretty interesting trying to teach myself how to ride a bike during that time (I have no balance, but my father and I ended up spending 4 hours on a Saturday teaching me how to ride one). I also can't drive a car, and I'm almost 21 (I'm diabetic and feel like it would be irresponsible for me to start driving when I have issues minimizing the number of hypoglycemic episodes I have -I really want to hold out until insurance will cover for a continuous glucose monitor so that there's very little risk of my blood sugar dropping to levels that can put me and others in danger).

It also took me forever to learn how to use a nail clipper (I didn't know the one I used required you to flip up one part to get the clipper part exposed).

 

[GaryDis]

Can openers are evil for lefties.

There are can openers with the knob on the top, making them neutral with regard to left or right handed users. I have an older, simpler one than the one linked, and it works great. (Full disclosure: I'm right handed.)

These generally cut into the side instead of the top, leaving a smooth edge.

 

[VandVsmama]

DD1 featured pretty heavily in this thread, but I couldn't think of anything DD2 was really bad at until you mentioned this. Oh brother, wipe & wipe until brown leaves town, girl!!! Don't give it one quick swipe and hope for the best!!

On the flip side, she gets good & clean in the shower. DW caught her in there with the washcloth - she had it between her legs, one hand gripped on a corner in front, one hand gripped on a corner in back, and just sawing away like she was trying to cut a log with the washcloth!

I literally laughed out loud when I read your reply, Gumbo4x4!!! "Sawing away like she was trying to cut a log with the washcloth" ROFL!!!!!!

 

[puffkin]

DS10 is extremely athletic. Very good competitive swimmer, baseball player and now doing very well at lacrosse. He can't ride a bike and refuses to learn. No matter what we try, he just doesn't "get" it. He also can't do jumping jacks, he just can't get the rhythm.

 

[mamamary]

Not my Dd but one of her best friends can't tell time. They were at a competition last month and she asked my daughter the time. My daughter pointed to the large clock on the wall. That's when she told her she can't tell time on a "regular" clock. She needs a digital one. Her friend just turned 16.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I literally laughed out loud when I read your reply, Gumbo4x4!!! "Sawing away like she was trying to cut a log with the washcloth" ROFL!!!!!!

We now understand why she has a separate washcloth just for her butt .

 

[Gumbo4x4]

DS10 is extremely athletic. Very good competitive swimmer, baseball player and now doing very well at lacrosse. He can't ride a bike and refuses to learn. No matter what we try, he just doesn't "get" it. He also can't do jumping jacks, he just can't get the rhythm.

The bike thing is my mom. This is a woman who was a cheerleader & multi-sport athlete in HS, has a masters in phys ed, and loves all sorts of sports (playing, not watching). She's 77 and hit a hole in one last year, used to average 180+ in bowling, excellent at tennis, etc.

But, she is a total disaster on a bike. My sister & I used to laugh out loud because she was so pitiful. I don't get it.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Hello? Are we related?!

I am left handed and that is how my mom FINALLY taught me to tie my shoes. I got it like it was nothing once she sat across from me. I could not reverse it in my head at all when she was doing it beside me.

That being said, it took me forever to learn to use scissors...because teachers kept trying to teach me with left handed scissors. As soon as they let me try with right, I got it. I do most things with both hands but can't write with my right and can't cut with my left.

My dd is almost 11 and still believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. She is not pretending. She truly believes. She is a little naive but I figure she won't believe much longer (same thing I thought 2 years ago lol). She does also know Disney characters and stuff aren't real too.

My dad & oldest DD are both left-handed, but they each have things they do "righty". Dad golfs & shoots right-handed. DD throws & shoots right-handed. Both bowl & write lefty.

Dad eats lefty, so he's always put at the left end of the picnic table LOL

 

[Tasha228]

My dad & oldest DD are both left-handed, but they each have things they do "righty". Dad golfs & shoots right-handed. DD throws & shoots right-handed. Both bowl & write lefty.

Dad eats lefty, so he's always put at the left end of the picnic table LOL

My ds and I are both lefties but we both are pretty good at doing most things with our right hand with a few exceptions. It makes living with a right handed dh and dd a little easier on us lol. The stupid spiral notebooks in school....ugh! They make them for lefties now but they aren't as easy to find and I didn't even discover those till I was out of school.

 

[Tasha228]

I was always so irritated that I couldn't snap my fingers or whistle when I was a kid. I think I was finally able to snap my fingers when I was like 6 or 7 and I've never really been able to whistle.

My dd (almost 11) can't snap but her younger brother can and loves to rub it in. Drives her crazy! She can, however, whistle better than anyone else in the house and loves to make that known. Little turd.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

My ds and I are both lefties but we both are pretty good at doing most things with our right hand with a few exceptions. It makes living with a right handed dh and dd a little easier on us lol. The stupid spiral notebooks in school....ugh! They make them for lefties now but they aren't as easy to find and I didn't even discover those till I was out of school.

I'm a lefty too, and thought that I'd found heaven when I found those lefty spiral notebooks with the spiral at the top! Of course, it didn't help those stupid desks with the arm support for the righties, but nothing for the lefties so your elbow was just dangling out there in mid-air!

My older brother taught me to tie my shoes doing the sitting across from me thing, but I still double knot them, I hate having to retie them, and some of the laces now a days just don't stay tied no matter how tight you pull them.

My DS didn't walk until he was almost 18 months old. According to the pediatrician, there just wasn't anything he wanted that badly, and why he found something, he'd walk. DD was potty trained during the day right after 3, but during the night she'd still be in pullups for another 8 months. Then DH promised to take her to Disney World if she could go through the night without an accident, lo and behold, 3 days later she's asking when they can go! He waited a few weeks before booking, and it was one of their best trips ever. It was the summer that Florida just kept getting hit with hurricanes, and Ivan was scheduled to come over Orlando, but then ended up tracking south and never hitting them. So they had great weather, and no crowds at all!