Questionable Knowledge
As we grow up and learn how to be an adult, we’re expected to know certain things. But sometimes, people have shocking gaps in their knowledge that really do make people wonder how they’ve gone on for so long without it.
From knowing that raw chicken isn’t good for you to not know what language a baby will speak, these people really should know better. Especially considering that they are adults!
Yogi Bear Knows Better
I used to work in Banff National Park. One day at the end of the tour, I was driving some guests back to their hotel, and a woman was adamant that Banff was clearly a very dangerous place to visit since we “just let wild animals run around everywhere!
They should be in cages!” I had to fight the urge to throw her off the bus pretty hard.
She also insisted that she needed to change the money she got in British Columbia to Alberta currency, which does not exist.
But at least this woman didn’t think babies spoke different languages, unlike our next story.
Reddit/FlyingADesk
Baby Talk Spanish
A pregnant checkout girl once heard my mom and me talking to each other in Spanish and asked us if it was hard to learn.
Woof, this led to quite the conversation. Apparently, the baby’s father was from South America, and since he had gone home for good, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to understand the baby.
After an awkward pause, my mom and I explained to her how the baby would speak in English because that’s what she speaks, and it will learn from her. She didn’t seem relieved, so I feared she might not have believed us.
Imagine sending your bank a photo of your money. What are they supposed to do with it?
Reddit/HokieGeek
As Good As Gold!
I worked at a bank when mobile depositing had just become a “thing.” We understood that some people would take longer to get used to it, but when we received a picture of someone’s cash, we realized that they sent a picture of their cash to us for a deposit because money is money, right? Yeah, it doesn’t work like that at all.
Imagine being an adult and not having any idea of not knowing how to make pasta. This next Redditor doesn’t have to imagine.
Reddit/Bclay85
Al Dente Massimo
I have many great stories about my former college roommate, but my favorite story is the pasta story. She wanted to make pasta. She put a pot on the stove and poured the noodles in, with no water in the pot, and turned on the stove.
After a while, she asked me, “How come these aren’t getting soft like when my mom makes them?”
I moved out a year later and never regretted it. I just hope their roommate is more patient than I was.
Every living organism has DNA and a unique makeup. It seems that seems people don’t understand that.
Reddit/TopRamenisha
Mixed-Up Hybrids
I used to work with a woman who insisted that any animal could reproduce with any other animal. She believed that sperm from any animal was the same and that DNA was irrelevant and didn’t matter.
I asked her about it one day, but her explanation was just so ridiculous. I have no idea how she didn’t know basic biology.
She believed this because she once saw some sickly, possibly deformed puppies and decided that they must have been half dog and half rat.
Every kid growing up knows about paying bills, right? They watched their parents do it. But some kids never learn, even when they’re 40.
Reddit/Hypersapien
The True Villains Of Adulting
My friend, who was pushing 40, had literally never paid a bill before. She had gone from living with her parents to living in a dorm to living with her parents again until she got married.
Then she got divorced and was living on her own for the first time. I got a text from her asking if my power was out, too then she realized it was just her. Her reasoning stunned me.
Her excuse was she never paid attention to the bills because she thought they were “receipts” and that the cost was included in her rent.
Her water was cut off a couple of weeks later, and we had to talk about that, too. Some people never learn.
Ever breathe through your mouth? Well, according to some adults, you might be poisoning yourself.
Reddit/ReddishWedding2018
Poor Breathing Techniques
When one of my nieces had a cold as a toddler, she was breathing through her mouth. But then, for some reason, my ex-brother-in-law flipped out because he didn’t want her to get carbon monoxide poisoning.
He thought that breathing through her mouth was dangerous. This was because he believed that was the wrong way instead of her nose, which was the “safe” way.
Like, has he never breathed through his mouth when his nose is blocked? Glad he’s an ex-brother-in-law now.
Most people know how to make a bed. Even if it’s through trial and error, there’s no excuse for laziness.
Reddit/Daniella42157
Making The Bed
I had spent the night at my ex-boyfriend’s place and stayed a bit longer in the morning to help clean the house. I was folding some clothes when I noticed him go from one side of the unmade bed to another without actually doing anything.
I looked at him, and he looked clueless. He said, “Can you please make the bed? I’ve never done this. No idea where to start.”
I didn’t mean to have a strong reaction to it, but the man did leave me speechless. He was 26 at the time. That day, I realized his mother often visited his house to make the bed and clean.
Most people trust doctors because they should be people whose word you can trust. Well, the next Redditor’s doctor seemed a little dull.
Reddit/throwingverbalrocks
What Sids You Say?
When my daughter was born, we had to see the hospital pediatrician, who was an older southern man, before we could switch to our usual one.
We’re in a tiny exam room, and he’s going over the do’s and don’ts for new parents. So, he asks us, “And I assume she will be sleeping in a crib in the nursery?” We respond by saying, “We have a bassinet set up beside the bed to make night feeding easier.”
Then he interjects and says, “She can’t sleep with you!” But we tell him, “She won’t be in bed. She has a bassinet beside the bed.” He says to this, “If she sleeps in the same room, there will be too much carbon dioxide, and she’ll suffocate.
That’s what causes SIDS.” After a short pause, we say, “…then isn’t this exam room unsafe?” We later put in a complaint with the practice and the hospital. That’s some ridiculously incorrect information to be spouting off at people, especially parents who take everything a doctor says as gospel. I can’t even find the logic in that.
Tea and coffee are made through some wonderful inventions. Think of the wonders of a kettle. One husband didn’t.
Reddit/withlovesparrow
And That’s The Tea
I asked my husband to make some herbal tea for me the first year we were married. He happily accepts and goes to the kitchen.
I waited for ten minutes before realizing I didn’t tell him which tea I wanted. But I couldn’t have known what he was doing in the other room.
I walked into the kitchen to find him standing over the stove with a mug of water sitting directly on the burner. Poor baby.
Mathematics isn’t for everyone. That said, parents should know the basics so they can help their children. But this next story is an eye-opener.
Reddit/Eternalsunshine85
Solving For X-Planation
I teach 6th grade. One time a parent came to me after trying to help their child with math homework and asked, “what number is x worth?
It feels like it changes with every problem!” The parent came to me after school without their child because they knew something was wrong and didn’t want to look stupid in front of their kid.
This is filed in my brain of parent reactions I can’t fathom, along with the mom that year who asked if her child could play piano in marching band.
Basic body functions seem pretty automatic, right? Well, one woman apparently had no idea how to burp.
Reddit/estrogen
Model Citizen
I was tending a bar in LA when one of the cocktail waitresses, an LA model-type, asked me to burp her—like a baby. I’m certain she wasn’t flirting since she was waaaaay out of my league, but I’m convinced she was just desperate for attention.
She told me she never learned how to burp like that was a normal thing not to know. She must have read the revulsion on my face because as she turned to leave, she let out this deep belly burp that filled the bar.
She turned beet red as I called out, “You’re welcome.” I never saw her in the bar again.
Vehicle maintenance is an essential part of owning a car. But one man was shocked to find that his girlfriend at the time had no idea what she was doing.
Reddit/mochalatteicecream
Spoiling For Oil
My dad is a mechanic, so I’ve been very lucky to have the importance of vehicle maintenance drilled into my head from a young age.
When my now fiancée and I had been dating for about six months, I needed to change the oil in my car, so I asked when the last time she had changed her oil was.
She had never changed it, even after owning the car for three years. Luckily, I taught her everything she knows today.
Another essential tool to use as an adult or even an adolescent is reading a clock. Most people can tell time, but one can’t.
Reddit/sketchelder
Time To Go
My friend constantly asked what time it was, so by the sixth time, I said, “Bro, there is a clock right there.” He was a grown man, yet he replied, “I don’t know how to read it.” Except that’s not even the dumb part.
A couple of weeks later, he posted something on Facebook making fun of people who couldn’t read cursive. So I came up with a devastating comeback.
I posted a picture of a clock and said, “What time does this say?” He blocked me. It was worth it.
Common safety practices should always be followed. But some people really do just put other people’s safety at risk for no reason.
Reddit/Shadownights23x
Dumb, High-Risk-Ways To Die
I work in highway safety, and I can no longer count on two hands the number of people I’ve stopped within the middle lane of traffic on a freeway with no bigger problem than a flat tire.
When I question them as to why they stopped in the middle of a freeway, the typical answer is either the vehicle wouldn’t go any further or they don’t want to damage their rim.
I swear people will put the well-being of the rim on their car above their own safety and even the safety of their children.
Cooking is an essential skill that can be taught or learned. But some people seem to not read instructions well or just never learn.
Reddit/pauliep13
She’s Come Undone
I had a roommate in university whose “cooking” method was to put baked beans in a Tupperware, seal the lid, turn on the microwave, and when the lid pops and explodes, beans everywhere…they’re cooked.
One time, I came home to find the oven on and billowing a bit. I opened the door to find what was an entire lasagna bubbling on the bottom of the oven.
He bought himself a frozen lasagna: Step 1, “remove outer packaging,” Step 2, “place on middle tray of a preheated oven.” He literally thought that “outer packaging” was anything outside the lasagna, so he tore away that shell that the lasagna cooked in and placed it straight on the rack, so as it defrosted, it just fell through the rack and all over the oven. Genius.
Wifi is a fairly new concept for the older generation. But now that it’s been installed in almost every modern home, people really should understand how it works.
Reddit/Thisjustinset
Where’s The Connection?
When I started working from home, I had a few users submit tickets for “connectivity issues.” These tickets got through two lines of support before landing in my queue.
After asking a few questions, it turns out that they thought the corporate Wi-Fi would follow them home.
They genuinely didn’t realize that they’d need home internet in order to connect to their workplaces.
Another story about an adult that can’t cook. But when there’s a misconception that eggs can be poisonous, that’s where we draw the line.
Reddit/sublime81
Cracked In The Head
A 19-year-old dude asked me: “How do you cook a fried egg?” I gave him instructions and left him with them. Came back a while later to ask how it went.
“Fine in the end, but it took a few attempts because the yolk kept breaking.” I stared at him blankly. “What do you mean kept breaking?” “Well, I kept throwing them away because I thought breaking the yolk made it poisonous.”
This next story isn’t about an adult, but it is about an adolescent that did the impossible. They got less than 2 points on their test.
Reddit/cynicalkerfuffle
F For Effort
In grade ten, we had a science test, and the teacher gave one point for putting a date on the paper and one point for your name on the paper.
And then there were 98 points for the rest of the test. All you had to do to get two automatic points was just your name and late.
A guy sitting in front of me got 0.5/100. He didn’t write the date and only wrote his first name.
A lot of fruits and nuts are really good for you. But everyone knows that most have to be peeled or shelled, right?
Reddit/1921Zeljo
Biting Off More Than He Can Digest
I was dating a 19-year-old guy. I explained that eating raw nuts is healthy, so he bought a bag of peanuts.
He complained two days later that he was going to stop eating them because they upset his stomach. That meant I got a free bag of peanuts. Yay!
He was stunned when he saw me shelling them and eating the nut because he had been eating them shell and all for two days. Surprisingly, that relationship did not end well.
This next one has to be the most absurd out of all these stories. We don’t have to tell anyone not to drink dangerous chemicals, right? Wrong.
Reddit/Rawr_Boo
Bleach Brain
I knew a kid who drank bleach to prove it wouldn’t kill him. A week later, he showed up at school after taking a shot.
He said he “proved his point” when the teacher asked why he was bragging about it. Mr. Hawk just said, “but you cannot argue that without that medical treatment, you’d have died, though.
You even said you have stomach damage and a burnt esophagus yourself.” This kid was bragging about that. He was not mentally disabled or otherwise.
Table manners like using cutlery are something a kid should learn growing up. But it seems that not all kids learn by example.
Reddit/Sevv2102
The Inept Ex
My ex didn’t know how to hold a fork properly. All utensils were used by grasping them in a fist. He also didn’t know how to open up baby wipes.
He tore open the bag, even though it has a lid, so they don’t dry out. He ignored the lid. I didn’t know how to merge or change lanes.
Didn’t know to rinse vegetables or fruits before eating. And there were many more problems, and that’s why he’s an ex now.
Social events like parades are normally on tight schedules. They can’t be asked to change course because of one mother. But she definitely thought they could.
Reddit/meekmeeka
March Right Back Over Here
Our town was live-streaming a holiday parade in case people weren’t able to make it out in person. This included a live chat feature as well.
One mother who lived nearby wrote into the chat that her daughter didn’t get outside in time and asked for them to turn around and come back to her street so she could see.
I don’t know how you can become a mother and not understand basic scheduling and know that a parade won’t follow your orders.
Reddit/hockeyboy05
Slip And Slide
My roommate in college was 22, and he had lived in an apartment for three years prior to moving in together.
He legitimately did not know how to remove a trash bag from a trash can and had never turned on an oven before.
But my favorite was when he complained one day that his bathroom was always sopping wet every time they showered. I finally realized that he never put up a shower curtain!
But at least that was harmless. Our next Redditor witnesses a classmate do something stupid and dangerous.
Reddit/18TacticalBeans
Well, That Blew Up In My Face
I knew a girl in high school who really wanted to breathe fire. On her first and last attempt, she put the lighter fluid in her mouth.
Instead of blowing it onto a flame, she lit it on fire inside her mouth and then tried to blow it out. She came to school the next day with a bandage over half her face.
Let’s just say she never tried fire breathing again. But I’m sure she found some other annoying or dangerous hobby.
Speaking of danger. Remembering how to put out different fires in the kitchen is a good idea. Just please don’t get muddled up and grab the wrong thing.
Reddit/spidermom4
Substitute Ingredient
My ex and I were cooking together. One of the pans got too hot, and we had a minor grease fire. She grabbed a bag of flour.
As tempted as I was to slap it out of her hands, I didn’t want to aerate a bunch of flour next to a grease fire, so I grabbed it with both hands and forced it over to the countertop, and then dropped the lid on the pan.
I asked her what her logic was, and she said, “Well, you’re supposed to put baking soda on a grease fire and not water, right?” “Yes. Why did you try to use flour?” “What’s the difference? They’re both white powder.”
History is an important part of education. Everyone should learn about the most important parts. But what if someone thought they were all made up?
Reddit/walkingknight
I Saw It In A Movie
When I was in high school, we were reading a short story about what would have happened if the Japanese had attacked us back with nuclear weapons after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A girl in my class raised her hand and said something along the lines of “why does this matter? None of it is real anyway.”
When the teacher asked her to clarify, the girl (who’s actually half Japanese) told her that the bombings of Japan were just from a movie and didn’t actually happen.
Using a kitchen sink is something people learn through their younger years, right? But what about a grown adult that doesn’t even know about the two different knobs?
Reddit/Mtbuhl
Because You’re Hot, Then You’re Cold
Our kitchen sink has one tap and two knobs for hot and cold. I walked into the kitchen, and my partner kept switching between hot and cold.
I asked him why. His reply was so stupid I was speechless. “Well, the hot gets too hot, so I run the cold instead for a bit.”
He literally didn’t know you could run both the hot and cold water at the same time. But I still love him.
The last story is definitely the most dangerous. Never ever point a BB gun at anything, even if you think it isn’t loaded.
Reddit/behindthesmiles
You Should’ve Put Your Foot In Your Mouth Instead
My friend had just purchased a new, high-powered bb gun. We had just finished shooting it in the backyard when he pointed the barrel at my face and pulled the trigger several times.
I tell him to stop being dumb, and he just laughs and says, “it’s not loaded!” Then the moron puts the barrel in his mouth, and POP! He shoots a bb right through his tongue and into his uvula.
He was okay after a doctor’s visit but should have really been more careful. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt in the end.
Reddit/Permalink
