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Post by bc2ca on Oct 24, 2021 22:51:46 GMT
He was eighteen and we were dating before he learned that if you put mail in your mailbox at home for the postal carrier to pick up, that you need to put the flag up. We lived in the US for six months before I realized that there was regular Saturday delivery. I just happened to be walking by when the mail truck was at the superbox and said something to a neighbor who nicely filled me in. We moved to a house with door-to-door delivery and it was probably a couple years before I learned I could put outgoing mail in the box and flip the flag up. On the reverse, DD is living in Vancouver and was trying to figure out where to put the outgoing mail in her building mail room. I told her she had to find a mailbox or post office. |
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julie5
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by julie5 on Oct 24, 2021 23:11:24 GMT
This was so funny I had to read it to my family and we all had a chuckle. Thanks for that! My college daughter didn’t know what “endorse a check” was last year when she had a scholarship check to turn into school.  |
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Post by bothmykidsrbrats on Oct 24, 2021 23:56:20 GMT
I love that he was not taking your word for it and needed his dads conformation! My kids 23 & 19 know how to address and stamp an envelope, but despite both having checking accounts since they were 15, could not write a check to save their lives, I don't think. They had student accounts that were only accessible by their debit cards, and neither ever ordered checks when they switched over to regular accounts. On the rare occasion they need a check for something, they just give me cash and I write a check for them.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Oct 25, 2021 0:09:52 GMT
I regularly sent snail mail to my smaller/younger nieces and nephews just so they get mail—they get so excited about it, so I hope their parents are telling them about the post office! Lol
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Post by CardBoxer on Oct 25, 2021 0:29:05 GMT
So funny. I guess he thought anyone who sent him a card was decorating it with stickers. Ha, stickers of the Queen! That would be weird. (Not all of our stamps have the Queen on them, but a couple of the ones in my wallet did.) So funny, I just had this conversation with my 7 year old since he is experiencing the postal system for the first time. He’s written some letters, I showed him how to address them and we walked to find a blue postal service mail box. On the way there he asked why we had to pay for stamps and I was explaining about all the people that work to deliver his letter need to get paid. I said to my son when he was shocked about having to pay too send a letter "How do you think the postmen get paid?" He said "Well not with a $1.10 stamp, that's for sure." He was eighteen and we were dating before he learned that if you put mail in your mailbox at home for the postal carrier to pick up, that you need to put the flag up. With all the mailbox pirates that come through our neighborhood, I never put the flag up for outgoing mail especially if it has a check in it. We don't have that system here. Mail sent to us gets put into our letterboxes. If we want to send a letter, we have to find an Australian Post mail box to put it into. There are mailboxes in every few streets, and always mail boxes near any shops and outside post offices. The mail gets collected from these mail boxes at about 6pm each night and taken to the sort centre. I had always seen those little red flags on letter boxes on American TV shows, but I didn't realise what they were for until I read about it here a few years ago. I don't think it is just you, most of us have failed. I think of all the things my daughter will never experiance, the yellow pages, pay phones, a landline in our home, owning set of encyclopedias/dictonary and list goes on... I took DS with me into a department store, when he was about 10. They were selling old style dial phones, and I told DS what they were and asked him to try using it. It was the funniest thing watching him how to use the dial, he had no idea! Like this with the dial phone? youtu.be/oHNEzndgiFIBTW, we also have mail boxes at shopping centers and on some street corners, etc., in the U.S. - at least everywhere I’ve lived. But the number varies depending on population. For a while I lived in a tiny town outside a large metropolitan area, and we had to go to the Post office to get our mail. No one seems to use flags around here. Our mailbox has one but many don’t. If we don’t drop off mail in a nearby box or one outside the Post Office, we leave it in our mailbox and the mail carrier picks it up. I don’t like doing that though. Curious - does he - or other kids mentioned - know how to write a check? I write them so rarely it even feels a little awkward and tiresome to me. |
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Post by gizzy on Oct 25, 2021 0:32:46 GMT
Too funny! My oldest knows how to mail a letter, not sure if my youngest would.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Oct 25, 2021 0:55:08 GMT
Ha, stickers of the Queen! That would be weird. (Not all of our stamps have the Queen on them, but a couple of the ones in my wallet did.) I said to my son when he was shocked about having to pay too send a letter "How do you think the postmen get paid?" He said "Well not with a $1.10 stamp, that's for sure." We don't have that system here. Mail sent to us gets put into our letterboxes. If we want to send a letter, we have to find an Australian Post mail box to put it into. There are mailboxes in every few streets, and always mail boxes near any shops and outside post offices. The mail gets collected from these mail boxes at about 6pm each night and taken to the sort centre. I had always seen those little red flags on letter boxes on American TV shows, but I didn't realise what they were for until I read about it here a few years ago. I took DS with me into a department store, when he was about 10. They were selling old style dial phones, and I told DS what they were and asked him to try using it. It was the funniest thing watching him how to use the dial, he had no idea! Like this with the dial phone? youtu.be/oHNEzndgiFIBTW, we also have mail boxes at shopping centers and on some street corners, etc., in the U.S. - at least everywhere I’ve lived. But the number varies depending on population. For a while I lived in a tiny town outside a large metropolitan area, and we had to go to the Post office to get our mail. No one seems to use flags around here. Our mailbox has one but many don’t. If we don’t drop off mail in a nearby box or one outside the Post Office, we leave it in our mailbox and the mail carrier picks it up. I don’t like doing that though. Curious - does he - or other kids mentioned - know how to write a check? I write them so rarely it even feels a little awkward and tiresome to me. There used to be outgoing mail collection boxes every few blocks when I was a kid. Many of them were removed decades ago, I’m sure to speed up the carrier’s routes. Now you would be hard pressed to find one in most residential neighborhoods. I had something I needed to mail a few months ago. The neighborhood carrier had already come by and I wanted the thing to go out that day. I was out and about running some errands and kept thinking I would run across a mail drop at some point but never did, and even the two closest actual post offices were miles away from where I was in different directions. I finally found one hiding behind a bank of mailboxes at a strip mall, and only after I dropped the letter in did I realize it wasn’t getting picked up until the next day. 🤦🏻♀️ |
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Post by AussieMeg on Oct 25, 2021 1:04:11 GMT
Curious - does he - or other kids mentioned - know how to write a check? I write them so rarely it even feels a little awkward and tiresome to me. We don't use cheques in Australia anymore. Well, maybe some really old people do, but I don't know anyone who does. I haven't owned a cheque book for about 25 years. Neither of my kids would have ever seen a cheque, let alone had to bank one or write one. |
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Post by Linda on Oct 25, 2021 1:22:03 GMT
I proctored the PSAT at a high school a couple weeks ago and as I was reading the script to complete the address I had 2 kids tell me they didn't know their zip codes. These are supposedly college bound kids and you don't know your zip code?  okee dokee. So...we moved earlier this year and DD21's friend asked for her address to have a present shipped for her birthday. She gave her the WRONG address (not the old one - just the wrong number for the new one). DD15 started high school this year and is taking an AP class and had to sign up for a college board account - I got a text in the middle of the school day asking for the new address. But in their defence - they don't actually use the address all that often. I'm always filling out forms and sending mail with return address on it and so on but they don't. |
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AllieC
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,090
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Post by AllieC on Oct 25, 2021 2:49:14 GMT
Curious - does he - or other kids mentioned - know how to write a check? I write them so rarely it even feels a little awkward and tiresome to me. We don't use cheques in Australia anymore. Well, maybe some really old people do, but I don't know anyone who does. I haven't owned a cheque book for about 25 years. Neither of my kids would have ever seen a cheque, let alone had to bank one or write one. Yes very very few cheques here. I was working in the banking system 25 years ago and was our banks rep on changing the system to get rid of them. Electronic banking is widely used and we just transfer money this way. When my daughter started working at a state government department she had to issue cheques to some people. She rang me asking WTF was a cheque and how it all worked LOL. |
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Post by ScrapbookMyLife on Oct 25, 2021 4:07:00 GMT
Does he ever get any mail, that has a stamp on it?  Many younger people, pay their bills and stuff electronically, or have it auto-billed to their card, so my guess it that many young people never "mailed the bills". |
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Post by gar on Oct 25, 2021 7:37:09 GMT
Curious - does he - or other kids mentioned - know how to write a check? I write them so rarely it even feels a little awkward and tiresome to me. We don't use cheques in Australia anymore. Well, maybe some really old people do, but I don't know anyone who does. I haven't owned a cheque book for about 25 years. Neither of my kids would have ever seen a cheque, let alone had to bank one or write one. Same here My Dad and Mum in Law send cheques to us or our DDs for birthdays etc but that's the only time I ever see one. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Nov 24, 2024 2:29:18 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2021 14:22:09 GMT
When I was in school, we did a unit on letter writing (business, friendly, etc.) and how to address envelopes EVERY year in elementary school, minus Kinder. My kids got a 1 day lesson on the whole thing 1 time in 2nd grade and neither has a clue how to address an envelope. I usually draw an envelope on scrap paper and fill it out so they can copy how to do it. The school system has dropped the ball in a big way on a lot of every day things our kids should have learned... like cursive too!!
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Post by OntarioScrapper on Oct 25, 2021 15:02:04 GMT
Interesting. I'm in Canada and my kids learned how to address envelopes. 21 years old and 17 years old now. I also mail handmade cards and receive cards at Christmas. The kids have had stuff mailed to them. They are highly amused that I had "pen pals" when I was a kid. Why didn't I just use a computer or my phone? Um... well we didn't have these fancy hand held phones when I was kid. We eventually got a computer but didn't have one since birth like them.  |
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Post by hookturnian on Oct 25, 2021 21:48:15 GMT
Does he ever get any mail, that has a stamp on it? Many younger people, pay their bills and stuff electronically, or have it auto-billed to their card, so my guess it that many young people never "mailed the bills". In Australia pretty much everyone, not just young people, receives e-statements and either auto-pays or pays online. On the odd occasion when you receive physical mail it is usually franked or has a little "postage paid" stamp printed on the envelope. |
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okee dokee. 
