"Tim Watts" wrote in message
news
DerbyBoy wrote:

Have you come across women who find it quite endearing that their
partner
is hopeless at anything DIY?

When I were a lad I felt a certain responsibility to be able to learn to
decorate, change fuses, put up shelves, etc. Same with cars - change a
wheel, change oil, etc.

Now one hears women talking of how hopeless their partner is in an
endearing manner. ("He tried to fit a shelf ant it ended up costing us
£300 because he drilled through the water pipe" - laughter all round!)


Most of the "village blokes" I know round here are generally pretty
handy -
and know what they specifically don't like to do (eg a bloke I know is a
genius with woodwork and building, but always calls in his sparky mate for
electrics and won't touch gas or water either).

But we are talking about the 35+ age group. The younger ones I know (who
are
in London because I don't know many 20-somethings here) in seem to know
rather less right down to being in that category you mentioned.

It's OK to be not very good at a fair few things, but to be completely
useless at anything practical is rather sad.

--
Tim Watts

Could the age-dependency be partly due to whether people live in rented
accomodation or own houses?
Younger people are likely to be living in rented properties, and probably
won't need (or be permitted) to do much DIY. Also, they may only have
on-street parking, which makes DIY car maintenance more difficult.

For me, DIY has become more practical and cost-effective as I've got older,
bought a house with a garage and accumulated tools.