What thing could your parents do the most significantly better than you?

CraigOhMyEggo@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 58 points –
49

My dad is way better at car maintenance and handy work. Machines just talk to him.

I learned a lot about home maintenance and handiwork from my dad, but then I started looking stuff up and realized he's been stubbornly doing a lot of projects the wrong way.

My dad failed his 11+ so was sent to a technical school so he actually learnt how to lay a row of bricks or how to beat out lead flashing. He did end up doing a PhD in Physics but I suspect his early school years explain why he's always been much more practical than me. My wife was a stage tech during uni so I'll happily defer to her for joinery. I can just about solder a copper pipe or big pads on a PCB.

Buy a home for somewhat reasonable percentage of their income and retire ever

Buying a reasonably priced home is easy, it's just not going to be where you want it to be

Not getting their kid properly checked for ADHD

Know the monetary value of approximately anything at a glance.

For example, when shopping my dad always knew if a sale was real or if they raised the price first.

Unfortunately he never managed to translate that skill into making money even when he owned a small comic store.

Why is this being asked in the past tense?

I didn't even notice. Perhaps OP also no longer has living parents.

It also could be referencing something that they were better at in their prime, but may no longer be able to do due to age. Like answering running if your dad was a professional runner or something.

My dad can keep a job better than me. He’s had like five jobs, each one for over ten years.

I’ve had like 30 jobs, and the longest for maybe 1.5 years. I’ve been fired a handful of times.

Somehow my father can just find a groove and stick with it. In me a dissatisfaction grows really fast and I waver on things.

same here and i think my parents got good at sticking with a groove because they had a family of 7 to feed, cloth, and house; meanwhile i have only had pets that don't grow up to be shitty self entitled tweens.

Going to college, getting a good job after acquiring a degree, holding that job for decades, retiring, being able to afford a middle-class lifestyle.

My father worked as a builder and a mechanic, so there wasn't much he couldn't fix if he put his mind to it.

They are both intellectually superior to me and my brother, their only children. I'm pretty sure he and I are a bit of a disappointment to both of them, but they would never admit that.

My grandparents raised me mostly and their house is always in order. Particularly washing. I never seem to get to the end of it and also do not enjoy it.

Handy work, talking to people, handwriting

Navigate without a GPS. Really, do much of anything without consulting the internet first. There's a lot of stuff I'm better than them at, but that's because I've almost never had to learn without instructions.

My mom was relatively successful, without much post highschool education at a time, and sometimes in a field, that were much more difficult for women.

The "normal" stuff, getting someone to stay with them and marrying them, losing their virginity, living by their own, having kids. I will never reach any of that.

My mom kept up with her friends from high school and college until she or they died, I cannot.

My dad was ridiculously smart, like could learn anything, keep a lot of knowledge in his head, could look at any idea and really consider it without believing or reacting to it, if that makes sense. I don't have the same fearlessness.

Moving me tf away from the part of town I was being raised in... or, alternatively: not having a distant father. You can't teach a boy what they need over just one weekend. FFS.

Trusting the official sources of information, understanding what a person ought to do in life, see a value of their jobs, believing in controversial things.

Their profession.

I didn't go to medical school and am in a different industry than them.

Die

Edit: alright downvoter, you’re right, I bet I can die better than them too. Challenge accepted