An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People

[BeagleMommy]

Every semester an email goes out to all faculty, staff and students at my university.  It reads:

Please remember that the squirrels that can be seen on campus are wild animals.  Please do not try to pet, hold, or pick up the squirrels.  Please do not try to feed them by hand.  If you want to provide treats for the squirrels, please scatter food on the lawns.  Squirrels are rodents and can inflict serious bite wounds requiring medical attention.  Squirrels may also carry rabies.

Every year I keep thinking:  these are grown people.  Do we really need to tell them to leave squirrels alone? 

What crazy things (that should be common sense) have you had to tell people.

[nuit93]

That having a $1000 credit limit on a credit card does not mean that you have to spend $1000 every month.

I had an ex who believed this. Luckily, he didn't actually HAVE any credit cards--this was the reason he'd avoided them.  He thought you had to spend that amount or pay some kind of fee.

He was in his early 20's...I'd already learned about how CC's worked by the time I was in high school.

What are some others...well, things like basic car maintenance (if the oil light comes on in your car, stop driving!). 

[ladyknight1]

See those large creatures there in the water? Don't feed them, it makes them more aggressive. Don't walk your dogs near them either. Those are alligators, and they would love a snack. (Every year, we have people who are shocked that alligators will eat pets.)

Same with coyotes. We have packs of coyotes that travel through neighborhoods at night and try to catch pets and stray animals for dinner. Keeping your cats outside in Florida is not a good idea.

Keep your garbage locked in a can with a lid, or you will be visited by raccoons and even bears. Yes, the Florida black bear is cute and small, but they should eat their natural foods not your garbage.

Don't put your aquarium plants and animals in our waterways. We have major issues with non-native species competing with native species here.

[Emmy]

In the gym there is a sign on the indoor track which says 'no spitting'. 
Another sign at a historical ruins site said "the ruins are not a toilet, please use restroom at visitor's center".

I find it pretty sad that signs would have to be put up to remind people not to do these things.

Some more humorous ones.
One of my friends in my group from college moved out to the west coast after graduation (we went to school on the east coast).  Another friend called him at 8 a.m. which was 5 a.m. Pacific time.  He said he thought the west coast was three hours behind the east coast.  The kicker was he just graduated with a major in geography.

[One Fish, Two Fish]

We have a sign in our employee's only restroom that says "Please Flush!"   

[otterwoman]

Every semester an email goes out to all faculty, staff and students at my university.  It reads:

Please remember that the squirrels that can be seen on campus are wild animals.  Please do not try to pet, hold, or pick up the squirrels.  Please do not try to feed them by hand.  If you want to provide treats for the squirrels, please scatter food on the lawns.  Squirrels are rodents and can inflict serious bite wounds requiring medical attention.  Squirrels may also carry rabies.

Every year I keep thinking:  these are grown people.  Do we really need to tell them to leave squirrels alone? 

What crazy things (that should be common sense) have you had to tell people.

Actually, there has never been a case of rabies being transmitted by a squirrel. http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/rabies.html

That being said, people should not pet the squirrels.

[faithlessone]

"Reindeer aren't fictional."

Also, I recently had to tell a 40-something (otherwise perfectly competent) man that it's not ok to put metal in a microwave. Worrying.

[Shalamar]

Emmy's story reminded me of when my co-worker was called by a colleague in the States (we're in Canada).  The colleague's timezone was two hours before ours.  He called at noon our time and asked my co-worker "Is now a good time to talk?"  My co-worker said "Actually, I was just about to leave for lunch."  Colleague laughed, said "Good one", and proceeded to talk poor co-worker's ear off. 

I have another one - I was visiting Orlando, Florida a few years ago and wanted to send a postcard to my parents in British Columbia.  I didn't know how much postage I'd need, so I asked the drug store clerk.  "How much is it to mail a postcard to Canada?"  "Canada?  Whereabouts in the States is that?"  "It's not a state - it's the country to the north."  Blank look.  I went somewhere else. 

[Jones]

Someone should have told my mother that she shouldn't have her children feed the chipmunks just for a good picture. On the plus side, though I have scratch scars from a rabbit, I was never hurt by a chipmunk.

[Lynn2000]

See, some of these don't strike me as that silly. Personally, I don't like animals, so I never try to feed/pet the squirrels that run all over campus, but lots of other people do. It's kind of a student tradition here, and I've never seen any emails or warnings about them. So someone coming from a situation like that, might very well appreciate knowing that the practice is not encouraged in their new location.

And, as a biologist, I know a fair amount about invasive species and how they get into the environment; but I'm not sure I'd expect the general public to be aware of this. I doubt they even realize their aquarium pets are going to survive being dumped into the local river--I figured most adults told their children this as a pleasant fiction. "We're setting Fishy free in the river!" while thinking Fishy will be toast in about ten minutes.

Though, I do think that if you actually move to an area to live, you should acquaint yourself with "natural hazards" like wildlife that gets into garbage or could eat your pets, and should not be taken by surprise by that.

My own contribution: I supervise undergrad students who work part-time in our office. Over the years I've had to explain to more than one that there are four sets of numbers on a credit card, which they have to type into a website to order supplies for us. Not just three. Granted, the fourth set doesn't seem to have good contrast with the background of our office credit card, but I'm always boggled that they didn't even know it was there. I guess they don't have credit cards, or if they have them, they've never really looked at them and have never bought anything online. 

[DottyG]

"How much is it to mail a postcard to Canada?"

Wouldn't it be just a normal stamp?  I've never had to pay a different amount when sending something to Europe, so I'd assume putting a regular stamp on it would work for Canada from the US, too.

[Sebastienne]

It definitely costs more to mail something overseas (or over-border, I guess). An international first-class letter is $1.30 right now. http://ircalc.usps.com/Mobile/MailServices.aspx?country=10113&m=1&p=0&o=1&c=1

[Dazi]

Well, I can see not knowing the postage rate to another country, but not knowing Canada is our neighbor to the North is just sad.  Honestly, I have no idea what the going rate for postage inside the US is.  I rarely mail things out and when I do, I just pop in the post office.

I have had to tell more than one adult not to feed or taunt the gators.  Don't let your child or pets swim in that body of water because of gators.  Gators, hawks and other large birds of prey will eat your small and not so small pets.  Don't pick up that cute little snake, it's a pygmy rattler and can kill you.

New Mexico is a state in the US, not it's own country.

See that red/black line running up your arm...you have blood poisoning, go to the ER now.

How credit cards/APR works. 

What a budget is...how to make and following one.

Stopping at a red light is not optional and cannot be treated like a four way stop.

You shouldn't eat leftovers that you left out on the counter all night.

That's poison ivy/oak/sumac.  An alarming number of people have no idea what it looks like.

[QueenfaninCA]

I've never had to pay a different amount when sending something to Europe

What? Of course mail to Europe costs more than mail inside the US. Who told you it would cost the same?

[Piratelvr1121]

That's poison ivy/oak/sumac.  An alarming number of people have no idea what it looks like.

Count me as one.  Poison Ivy sure, leaves of 3, let it be.  Last summer we had poison sumac growing on the outside of our fence and my neighbor told me "Oh it's walnut trees getting going and you don't want those around your property!  You can tell they're walnut trees by smelling the leaves and if they smell nutty, it's walnut!"  Now my neighbor's a sweet woman so she wouldn't trick me in that way.   

So I did touch the leaves and started getting some odd itchy bumps and had no idea what they were, thought they were bedbugs until I couldn't take it anymore and went into urgent care to find out it was poison sumac.  We got rid of it all but I learned not to trust my neighbor's knowledge of plants!