Recently, reddit user u/arual_x asked, "What’s the most horrifying 'How do you not know how to do this?' moment you’ve experienced with another person whilst adulting?" And the responses were shocking, hilarious, and also a bit concerning, if I'm being honest:
1. "My roommate tried to make pasta by putting a pot on the stove, pouring the noodles in without adding water, and turning on the stove. Then she asked me, 'How come these aren’t getting soft like when my mom makes them?'"
2. "My best friend was sleeping with a new guy. She said she wasn’t sure of his sexual history but she was on birth control to prevent STDs. I was like, 'Umm...'"
3. "I had to jump a friend's car that wouldn’t start. After we finally got it running, she immediately turns off the car and said, 'Thanks so much, I’ll call you later!'"
4. "My roommate was making brownies from a box. The instructions said to grease the bottom of the pan before pouring in the batter. You bet your ass they picked up the pan, flipped it over, greased the BOTTOM of it, flipped it back over and poured in the brownie batter."
5. "My relative tried to put her son on the school bus his first day of kindergarten and got upset when the driver refused to let him on because he wasn't on the list. She never registered him for school and just thought she could put him on the bus and send him."
6. "My friend who was almost 40 had never paid a bill before. When she got divorced and lived on her own for the first time, I got a text from her asking if my power was out too. She realized it was just her and her excuse was she never paid attention to the bills because she thought they were receipts and that the cost was included in her rent."
7. "I had to ask my roommate to please wash his hands after touching raw chicken. He thought it was fine to just go about his day before I asked."
8. "My wonderful, selfless, beautiful younger brother asked me how to make ice last year. He's 24."
9. "When my friend bought a house, a month into home ownership, she asked me when the city was coming to cut her lawn because it was starting to look like weeds. It was awkward when I had to explain that she needs to cut her own lawn or hire someone."
10. "I took a food safety course and someone asked if they could wash a turkey with dish soap."
11. "A girl I knew in college had her dad call to remind her to put oil in her truck. She did and then her truck started smelling like french fries and died. She couldn't understand that this was directly related to the quart of vegetable oil she put in the motor."
12. "This 19-year-old guy asked me how to cook a fried egg. I gave him instructions and when he came back, he said it took a few attempts because the yolk kept breaking and he thought breaking the yolk made the egg poisonous."
13. "First year at uni, a girl in my hall was microwaving some food and left it in the metal foil container. It took three fire engines to put out the fire and we had to have a new kitchen installed."
14. "My ex–best friend told me that she had needed to buy another new vacuum cleaner, which was the third that month. I asked her what was wrong with it and she said, 'It's not picking things up anymore!' So I asked if she had dumped out the container. She didn't know that was a thing."
15. "One of my roommates in college would melt plastic spatulas like crazy. She'd always say it was due to the spatula being made of cheap plastic, but I finally caught her one day. She'd be cooking something and would walk away LEAVING THE PLASTIC SPATULA IN THE PAN WHILE IT WAS STILL ON!"
16. "My friend from college tried making burrito bowls for dinner and complained that some of the onions were weirdly chewy. She didn't know onions need to be peeled."
17. "Every few weeks, I catch my roommate trying to put his metal tea strainer in the microwave in spite of the fact that our first week living in this apartment, he destroyed the microwave doing this."
18. "My wife's entire family did not grasp that you need to put water in a steam iron."
19. "I had to teach my boss how to go down to the next line by hitting 'Enter' on his computer keyboard."
20. "I asked my husband to make some herbal tea for me the first year we were married. I walked into the kitchen to find him standing over the stove with a mug of water sitting directly on the burner."
21. "My friend in college once lamented, 'Ugh. I have to pee and I just put a tampon in like five minutes ago. I hate having to pull them out dry.' Her mother taught her that there is only one hole down there and peeing with a tampon in isn't possible."
Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.