30-year-old dogsitter can't figure out any of the household appliances, sparking parenting debate over the importance of giving kids chores: ‘They’re failing at being adults’

Adulting is hard, sure, but if you can't operate a washing machine by your 20s or 30s, something's amiss.

Obviously, people have different thresholds and standards set for them by their parents during their formative childhood years that will ultimately shape who they become in their adulthood. Oftentimes, hindsight has 20/20 vision looking back on entirely incompetent adults or overly mature teenagers, but there are a few parenting decisions that have been tossed by the wayside since our parents' era. And we're really starting to see the effects…

Chores, namely, are not as brutal or as common as they once were. Back in my dear old meemaw's day, kids worked on the farm like little free day-laborers, acting like tiny cowboys and mini adults from the time they were 7 or 8 years old. These kids made turkey dinners and hunted deer before their teenage years, and they were considered "responsible adults" by the time their next sibling was born. Bestowed with responsibility at such a young age, those kids grew up to be extraordinarily mature old souls who reminisced on the days of their childhood lost to manual labor.

Conversely, some kids are born into plushier situations, never lifting a finger until they're forced to in their 20s and learning to boil water during their university years. I once had a college roommate who didn't know how to use a microwave; at the time, I assumed it was weaponized incompetence, but in truth, she just genuinely never had to fend for herself in any way, which turned out to be an egregious disservice in her adulthood.

Just like the dogsitter in this next story, who proved to be completely incompetent, some people learn far too late how to function.

via Vlad Dmytrenko

Young man struggling to figure out the washing machine.
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Cute dog making a mess in the house.
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Loading the dishwasher with a few dishes before launching a new wash cycle.
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Parents need to toe the line between child labor and raising prima donna princess, but if your grown, 30-year-old child never learned how to use a washing machine, a dishwasher, or any other kind of household appliance before moving out of your custody, you missed the plot a little on the importance of chores. Allowance or no allowance, kids need to learn how to become functioning adults, one way or another, and chores are a simple way to get there.
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