Bob the builder, can we fix it?

Has it ever hit you that we're a generation who grew up in comfort and luxury. We went to school, numerous after-school activities, hobbies, toys, gadgets and God-knows-what. Mummy and daddy always did everything for us, took us everywhere, bought us everything...

Now that we're in our early twenties (scary, yeah!), we are still being babied by our parents. (Denying it would be futile at this point.) Our foreign readers may find this ridiculous, embarrassing perhaps - with good reason! However, living on this tiny rock gives us very little opportunity to venture out and brave life's storms on our own as hardly nobody ever leaves home before they get married, or hit 30. Some are so reluctant to leave the nest that they bring their spouses and future offspring to live with their parents. 

So anyway, a couple of days ago we got talking about how useless we are at practical stuff. There have been plenty of times when we needed a bulb changed, a plug replaced and such miscellaneous hiccups that regular people have to deal with in the daily running of their households. We are ignorant to these things, unfortunately. But it isn't just us, is it?

These generations are fixated with studying. Getting those goddamn O'levels (or you don't get a job), A'level (because everyone has O'levels, and you must be better than them if you want to stand a chance), Degrees (because now that you've gone so far, you might as well get it), Master (because everyone has a degree, so a Master's degree is crucial) ...thank God we haven't gone as far as making Ph.D an imperative need - not yet. Anyway, what we're saying is that we study, and study, and go out, and go out, and we never, ever get to learn anything that is really helpful when it comes to daily needs. (OK, there might be those who did pick some things up, but they aren't many, are they?) Of course, all our lives we've had our dads to take care of such stuff. 

Then again, this seems to be a generational problem. And no, it's not a problem pervading only these islands. The dads seem to be able to put the Brainiac team to shame. They can do everything, fix anything. We, on the other hand, are insanely useless at everything.

And what are the consequences? Well, whenever you need to get something done you have to get the so-called professionals to do it. You fork out the money when you could've done it yourself in 10 minutes. Yeah, because time is another problem, isn't it? You cannot simply do it when you most need it. No, you need to wait for them to find a slot for you. All very understandable, of course. Yet, it's annoying nevertheless.

Case in point? We had a watch that wouldn't work. So what do we do? Easy, you go to Sterling (where we bought it from) and have it fixed. The lady there said they must replace the battery. We immediately said "yes", you know, what else do you say? 4 days later they texted and we went to pick it up. 5 euros. That's what we had to pay. Had we thought of it, something the previous generation would have probably done, we could have bought a whole pack of those batteries for the same price - if not less. It's a stupid example perhaps, yet it perfectly renders the idea, doesn't it?

We'd love to know what the generations to come will be like and how much worse the situation will be. Haha.