Turning into DIY disasters

Is it just me or is there an entire generation of completely useless people wandering aimlessly through life? writes blogger Dan Wainwright.

At 26 years old my parents had been married for three years, had bought their house and my mum had a sizeable lump she was carrying around in front.

Aside from the mortgage commitment I am nowhere near as far along the responsibility route now that I am that age.

Add to that the fact that I don’t seem to be able to fathom even the simplest of electrical appliances or do the most basic of DIY.

As a child I remember my dad being able to just rustle up a set of perfectly level shelves on a Saturday afternoon and be finished in time for Gladiators and Casualty. His car was forever making dodgy noises which he quelled simply by abusing it with a spanner and shouting a few profanities.

But when I tried to fill my windscreen washer bottle last week it took me and two friends 10 minutes to figure out how to open the bonnet.

Despite craving my independence all through my teens and early twenties the moment I find any clunking noise at home I’m immediately on the phone to my dad asking him to help me sort it out.

And I’m not alone. It seems that for some reason over the last 10 or 15 years children have lost the ability to learn how to make do and mend.

Perhaps it was the 10 years of economic growth and prosperity Gordon Brown insists we still be grateful for. He’s like someone still trying to solicit thanks for a birthday party weeks after the last balloons have deflated but he has left a load of paper plates and broken crisps all over the carpet for someone else to clear up.

Sorry, back to the point. My girlfriend’s dad and I recently had to remove the shower, which had reduced to a dribble, in order to try and clear whatever was blocking it.
He took the whole thing to pieces and reassembled it like he was finishing an Early Learning Centre jigsaw puzzle while I looked on and passed him screwdrivers from my tool kit that I had never used before.

For all our A-level grades and university degrees I am certain that there are very few graduates who possess the necessary skills to function as well as our parents did.
Maybe it’s just because we delayed growing up by a few years. Perhaps I’m already learning how to do these things by assisting our dads when they come to do us a favour.

One thing’s clear. If we’re going to make it through this credit crunch, where we simply can’t afford to replace and chuck out, then we’re going to have to make do and mend somehow.