"She didn’t know clothes need washing" – Adults who don’t get the basics

An older lady called wanting her usual flu shot, but when I tried to schedule an appointment, she insisted she wouldn’t come in person because she’d read it was available "by phone or online." I had to explain that unfortunately, we can’t vaccinate over the phone.

I worked in the US for a few years, and a colleague was fascinated by Hungary. She said she’d visit someday, "though she knew the train ride would be very long." I told her she didn’t need to take the train—she could just fly. But she said she always travels by train because she’s afraid of flying. She was really disappointed to learn there’s no train route between the US and Europe.

A young man called complaining his car wouldn’t start—it was bought from our dealership. I told him to bring it in. It turned out the car was fine; he just hadn’t filled the tank since he took it. He didn’t know cars need regular refueling.

While working at a travel agency, I had to explain to a couple why the "below sea level" cabins on a cruise ship don’t have balconies.

One of my university classmates—one of the smartest guys—was asked casually at lunch what I do with dirty clothes. I said I wash them, and he thought I always buy new ones! It turned out he’d never washed or hung clothes before and had no clue what to do with laundry. (Their laundry room was in the basement of their family home, where he never went, so he’d never seen his mom doing laundry.)

My dorm roommate accidentally spilled a pile of cocoa powder on the floor. Instead of sweeping it up, he grabbed the mop and then wondered why there was "a thick, brown slime on the floor."

A few weeks ago, I was on a date with a guy and invited him for dinner. I cooked meat. It wasn’t tough, but he couldn’t cut it. He just pressed the knife down hard without moving it. When I showed him it’s not butter and you have to saw back and forth because of the serrated blade, he was genuinely amazed. When I asked how he’d eaten meat before, he said he just held it in his hand and bit it.

My ex-girlfriend didn’t know which color—red or blue—meant hot or cold. When she got in the car and turned on the AC, she randomly twisted the dial one way, then checked with her hand if it was warm. When it was, she turned it the other way.

My car battery died, but I had jumper cables, so I asked a colleague to help jump-start it. She said she didn’t know how but would try. She parked next to me, and I asked her to pop the hood. She said she didn’t know how. I showed her, thinking she was new to the car. After jump-starting, I told her she could close the hood now, and she asked, "How do I do that?"

I had to explain to my 25-year-old roommate—after calling plumbers twice since he moved in—that tampons don’t go down the toilet but belong in the trash. He said, "Yuck, I’m not going to look at bloody tampons in the bin!" So I showed him how to wrap them in toilet paper before throwing them away.