That does seem amazing. Did she teach him? I am kind of surprised his folks never taught him, either.

Wow I find that hard to believe. Analog clocks and watches are still pretty popular around here in schools and in the business environment. Nick is learning how to tell time in 1st grade (and he's been exposed to telling time in preschool and kindergarten).

I agree, the parents are suppose to teach their kids the basics. Schools have changed so much, parents today can't do the work or understand it, I know I can't help DGS with his homework.

Here's another. My (almost) 16 year old stepdaughter ordered some clothes online. One pair of jeans didn't fit so she had to send them back. They did come with a preprinted shipping label for that purpose. I told her to be sure to put her return address on the package as well. She wrapped the jeans and brought the package down to me to send... with the preprinted shipping label in the upper left corner and her return address right in the middle!

I told her that would most likely get the package send right back to her, and asked if this was something they had never covered in school! Nope! They've also never covered counting money, writing checks, and several other things. She said she 'thought' they might go over this stuff in some sort of life skills class as a senior.

And no, I've never taught her any of that stuff either. I've only been 'mom' for a couple of years now. I guess I thought she'd have learned the address thing back in early to mid grade school.

My kids learned to tell time on a regular clock in kindergarten. I know because I taught them myself. We made toy clocks out of paper plates and practiced on them. I noticed their schools have regular clocks hanging throughout the hallways.

I had a really old black desk top rotary phone from my grandfather in the basement. About 10 years ago my sons friend ask if he could use our phone to call home. I said yes and pointed at the phone. He picked up the hand piece and stared at it. Had no idea how to dial it.

Parents need to be held accountable also. Parents are
NOT involved enough. You can NOT expect others to
teach your children everything.

"I told her that would most likely get the package send right back to her, and asked
if this was something they had never covered in school!
Nope! They've also never covered counting money, writing checks, and several other things"

I've got to say that I was NEVER taught the above in
school either. My parents covered that! I think
they went over money counting in DECCA....
I don't know, possibly in some math class in elementary
or Jr. high... but possibly not.

I do believe we were taught to read clocks by my parents and in school, but schools have installed digital clocks in the classroom which I think is stupid.

Unfortunately, parents today don't have or take the time to teach their children life skills. That's one of the casualties of NOT having one, fulltime, stay-at-home parent. People rip into me, everytime I mention that all children need a parent on the premises. But how can a single parent (or even 2 who work fulltime), come home from work at the end of the day and have to: clean, do laundry, grocery shop, make dinner, supervise the school homework, maybe fit in an after school activity or 2, organize bath/bedtimes, pay the bills, see to everyong's health, and do all the other little household chores in just a few tired evening hours AND find the time and energy to also teach a full curriculum of life skills to their children. There simply aren't enough hours in anyone's day to do that. And where I am, I just don't see stay at home mom's anymore--who can afford that even with 2 parents in residence? For single moms, time is even shorter.

I see the same lacks in chldren today, and deplore them, but it really is a parent's responsibility--and often joy--to be the one to teach their children lifeskills

Too busy to teach your kid how to tell time? really?

Gardenspice..you might just be amazed at how UNimportant many things are to "parents" these days..

Yes...time is still taught in schools...on clocks with hands..I use the clock "as a cheat" for 5 multiplications. When I tell 4 and 5th graders that..a little light bulb goes off.

But, my GD for several years had to use digel clock because she had, and was tested for, and it was confirmed that she had a math deficency. That is she really struggled with seeing numbers lined up etc. She was tutored, had special classes and now as a almost 17 year old can read clocks and watches better. Yes it takes time for the parents and school to work together. They noticed it during math classes in the early grades. Reading no problem. It was columns of math and addition and substraction.

My kids are taught clocks at school. I also keep a real clock around in the house so they can see it.

I'm the bad parent because I've never taught my kids to tie shoes. My oldest is in 5th grade and still has velcro shoes.

My kids know their address, but they've never mailed a letter. If the grandparents send a gift, we make a phone call to thank them. Dh and I rarely mail things out like bills because so much can be done online.

I'm a sahm and there doesn't seem like enough hours in the day to teach what I need to either. I'm big on sending the kids outside to play and enjoy the nice weather. Cleaning isn't being pushed right now. I am working on teaching the kids to cook. Once or twice a month, depending upon my patience, I'll let the kids pick a dessert, meal, or favorite recipe and I'll do a one on one with them.

I learned in 2nd grade, Mrs. Burnum's class, to tell time, BUT I had a heck of a time trying to figure out why 'a quarter of an hour was 15 min.' when a quarter in coins was 25! I thought it should be 25 after the hour...LOL!

Now...how would you have liked being responsible for teaching me how to tell time (or anything else) with THAT kind of thinking?

nola anne

I don't think that there isn't enough time to teach kids these things. It's just a matter of taking the time to do it. My kids know (and have known since they were small) how to tell time on an analog clock. And how to address a letter. They were ALWAYS obligated to write thank you notes including addressing the envelope from the time they were old enough to write legibly. I made it a point to make sure they had basic life skills like that. Maybe some don't consider those things to be basic life skills anymore, who knows? BTW, I was a single parent and/or working parent from the time my kids were ages 2 and 5.

guess my dd2 is out of the norm...dgs (5) can read, tell time, and is now working on math skills..oh, he and dd are now "writing a book"...his 3yo sister is following his lead...reading, ect...

dd2 does work from home but has a nanny (her job is stressful software)...she spends all her spare time with her kids...

oh and we made sure dgs had tie shoes this year...

*I* learned something new about tying shoes at age 65. If you tie your knot and make your bow, then tie *another* knot on top, your shoes will stay tied much longer.

Nola Anne, I had the same trouble with the quarter of an hour time...

It's weird that some kids only know digital. We have 2 battery-powered clocks in our home, and they are analog. I thought most people had those clocks somewhere in their house.
If they are directed to turn something clockwise, they should know what that means.

Chisue, you mean a double-knot? I tie all my running shoes with a double-knot. The laces are so long, and stay tied better.

Round laces are a bugger to stay tied. They never stay. I replaced my round ones with flat laces, problem solved.

pekemom...obviously our problem wasn't learning to tell time but Math instead!

We needed to realize that a 'quarter' was nothing more than 1/4 of $1.00, so 1/4 of an hour (60 min.) would be 15 min.

A quarter was not only a coin and a quarter of anything could be any number besides 25!

Confused yet? LOL!

nola anne

It is amazing how little our college grads know these days. One time at Petco I had bought 10 cans of cat food for $4.00, but the clerk was ringing it incorrectly. When I told her she had to adjust the pricing and could not figure out what each can should be......that is frightening to me.

I sure hate to think I come across as a parent who didn't take the time to teach their child things. That's bothering me, thinking that some of you might be thinking that from my earlier post. My stepdaughter was 13 almost 14 when her dad and I were married. My kids knew all of those things well before then and I just assumed that she would have too. It's only as we run into certain things that I find out what she doesn't know. My kids did learn most of the things that I mentioned in my first post in school, somewhere around 3rd or 4th grade (except how to fill out a check, which came later on). Maybe they just had teachers who took an interest in teaching those sorts of things. I do have to admit to being another one, though, who didn't teach her kids to tie their shoes. I was told that I did it in a weird way so I left that to their dad to teach them. Same goes for driving a stick shift. I couldn't handle the pressure (and the sudden stops and starts) on that one and had to pass it over to dad!

Parents are responsible for teaching kids life skills. I was a single mom who worked full-time and I made sure DS learned early how to tie his shoes, tell time, make his lunch, etc. When he was in 7th grade, I had him start doing his own laundry. I had to bite my cheeks to keep from laughing on school mornings when I would hear him say "Oops, I need to do laundry after school today".

Many of the newer schools only install digital clocks around here. The clock used to be used as a teaching tool but then again when I was in school, all teachers were expected to teach. Now, so many don't and the kids suffer. Nay, society suffers too. Interesting that in most jobs if you don't do what you're supposed to do at the quality level expected you lose your job. Even the post office will fire people for non-performance. Not often, granted, but it does happen.

Plus a lot of people wouldn't need to have both parents working (at least full time) if they'd back off from what they feel is a minimal lifestyle. They don't have to buy a home they can't afford. They don't need 2 new SUVs plus an RV in the driveway. Once they buy the house they can't afford they don't need to immediately remodel everything. They don't need to outfit themselves and the kids in designer clothes. They could make some food at home rather than living on drive through barely-edibles. Instead of spending hundreds and thousands on useless toys and trinkets because "it's Christmas" do something you can afford. The "annual vacation" putting them in debt is a joke and I don't care if "they need the getaway". If they'd learn the concept of saving, and that just because you have money or worse, credit, does *not* mean you have to spend what you can't afford to spend. And so on.

Many times during my life I've heard people go "how can you DO it???" and instead of explaining common sense to people not-so equipped I gave up and just responded "I'm not you".

When they were toddlers, my two girls found my old portable typewriter and decided it was a "computer". They played with it till it broke. But I thought it was hilarious what they called it, because it had a keyboard. They are now both in college and are great at keyboarding, texting,Facebook, etc, all the skills you need nowadays.

When my nephew lived with us he had very limited, timed access to television. What had previously consummed 95% of his waking time was now limited to one 30-minute program a day and one 1-hour program on weekends (plus some special programs or movies we could veiw together if the weather was bad.)

He was 6. He could read. I gave him a TV guide and asked him to plan his viewing for the week and mark the time.

He couldn't tell time. We had an analog clock in the livingroom and I explained how it worked. We practiced.

He was so anxious about his (mean-auntie-enforced, LOL) TV viewing that he quickly became a great time-keeper. To celebrate he got to pick out a watch for his own...as long as it was analog. Later we got him one that was both analog and digital; he thought it was "cool."

After the first few Saturdays of wailing that "everyone watches cartoons all day long on Saturday," he adjusted well. He had ballgames in the parking lot, soccer games at the school, and running/biking/going wild with his little gang of friends.

Before long he was skipping Saturday morning viewing altogether (and got an extra movie now and then.)

So, bribery with television viewing increased his interest in telling time.

I can see how that could happen, just never thought it would happen.

If I told someone like that to turn a right hand nut "clockwise" to put it on a screw, I'd be speaking a foriegn language!

One of the first things taught to me in 1st grade was to tell time. But I already knew how.

My DD sister was constantly berating My folks, DM particularly, because they did not stay home and: Make cookies, play 'tea-party' with me, make sure we knew how to dance, get us involved in community sports teams, get us into scouts,... My DM worked 14 - 16 hour days at a butchering plant and DD worked 12 hour shifts 6 nights a week at a manufacturing plant.

We had a choice 1. get involved in whatever house chore they were doing or 2. go play.

Auntie's kids didn't turn out any better then we did, and none of DP's kids spent four years in a state pen. My cousins were soooooo disappointed to find out after high school that the whole world didn't revolve around them being pampered through life's lessons.

Kids are stubborn and resilient they will ignore what they deem unimportant with the excuse "no one told/taught me that." and they will hunt down a teacher when something becomes important to them.