Amused People Share The Weirdest Thing They've Seen Someone Do To Save Money.

Well you know what they say, a penny in the pocket is a... wait, what's the saying? Is there even a saying? Whatever, just go read about these cheap people, OKAY!? We all know you're not here for the intro, anyway.
1. I have a friend whose grandfather would take out all of the grandchildren to Dunkin' Donuts. He would buy a single doughnut and then cut it into six pieces for each of the grandchildren. Then he would take a huge handful of napkins and take them home with him. At home he would cut them in half to use.
This same man also bought cat food when he first came to America because he thought that it was cheap tuna for people and that the cat was a mascot selling the tuna.
2. My wife always talks about her great-grandfather's frugality. He hand built most of their furniture, had a black and white TV in the 90's, and drank Sam's Choice beer. The neighbors had a dispute with him concerning the overhang of his outside shed, it apparently was too close to their property line. So this rickety old man filled his Sam's Choice beer cans with homemade concrete, somehow raised the entire shed by himself, and rolled it on the cans 6 inches away from their property. Entire endeavor cost about $8. This man was slick.
Weird thing is, he had money. Lots of money. He was an engineer for NASA during the Gemini/Apollo missions. I guess doing it right for a cheap as possible was ingrained in him. He died before I met my wife. He would have been fun to talk to.
3. When my grandpa was alive, he griped at my dad for leaving the Num lock on on the keyboard because it was wasting electricity. My dad gave him a nickel and was like "there, that just covered the next two years."
4. My grandpa takes everything from restaurants he can get his hands on. Crackers, mints, ketchup packets, napkins. Not like one. Like a lot.
5. The year before I went to University I had a sudden realization that I would need to start thinking about household essentials in a way I hadn't before. I was paying for everything myself, so I thought it would be a genius idea to start saving up as many free things I could, that way I could have myself covered for those basic costs. Every time I went to a restaurant I would take home fistfuls of ketchup, mustard, straws, napkins, sugar, salt, pepper, and other of those little free giveaways. I must've collected hundreds and I was pretty proud of myself, too, until my mom came in one day and asked me
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I must've collected hundreds and I was pretty proud of myself, too, until my mom came in one day and asked mewhat it all was. "Oh, I'm saving this stuff for university," I said. My mom looked at the sugar packets and was like, "You know you could buy a full bag of sugar for like two dollars, right?" Oh.
Thewriter
6. In Canada we no longer have the penny so when you're total comes to 2.33 it rounds up to 2.35. Or 2.32 would round down to 2.30.
Whenever a friend of mine makes a purchase he waits to see the total, if it's going to round down he pays in cash, but if it's going to round up he pays with card since the machine can actually charge you the correct amount. He saves pennies a day!
7. They offer to go on a lunch run for everyone in the office. The place they go to has these "Punch this card 5 times get a free lunch".
He's basically got to get 5 people lunch and his is free, all he has to do is take a 10 minute walk.
Pretty smart if you ask me.
8. In college I worked as a barista and we threw out a ton of pastries, bagels and sandwiches. The owner was very clear that we could not take anything out of the case and bring it home but there was nothing stopping us from digging through the garbage. So at closing time we would take out the day's trash then divvy up the food to be thrown away put them in small bags gently set them inside the clean trash bag for a second then take it out and go home. Free food loophole.
9. This was in the mid-90s, but I worked with a guy who knew the "throw out routines" of several close-by fast food restaurants: McDonald's, Schlozky's, etc.
Back then, McDonald's would just make a ton of everything, put them under a heat lamp, and they would just get picked up as people ordered them.
Items had a fairly short shelf life, so they would get tossed. He said most of the time they would all go in the same trash bag, everything in their individual wrappers.
He somehow knew which bags were which and would bring home a big bag of Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, and whatnot.
I took his advice and went to Schlozky's right after closing. I opened their dumpster and, sure enough, there was a big garbage bag FULL of their fresh-made bread and nothing else. I took that bag home, froze most of it, and ate for a year on Schlozky's bread.
That was my only time dumpster diving, but the guy was definitely onto something (that didn't include weight management).
10. My dad refuses to buy drinking glasses. Instead, he will
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buy the cheapest spaghetti and alfredo sauces that come in glass jars (ragu, I'm looking at you), use the sauce, and save the jar. He cleans the jars, removes the label, and voila new drinking glasses.
11. It was me. When McDonald's used to give those stickers out with their coffee, after you filled one up with four stickers you could get a free coffee. I worked the recycle truck and would stockpile every cup I'd find working a suburb. Free mocha frappes for months on end.
12. Whole Foods take 10c off your bill for every bag you bring with you. If you bring two bags, they'll give you 20c although everything you bought could easily fit in one bag. The easiest way to get your bill from $168.40 to $168.20.
13. My friend's dad would make the family collect the water you run in the shower before it heats up. He would then use that water to water his yard.
14. In high school, I worked at a pizza place that would clean the refrigerator on Thursday nights for a supply shipment Friday mornings. Anything in the refrigerator that was fresh (onions, tomatoes, etc.) or not frozen anymore (meats, certain sauces, dough, etc.) were to be scrapped. One of the managers that closed on Thursday nights would instead of throwing out all this food, have us make whatever we wanted to take home. After 2 weeks of working the closing Thursday shift, the manager requested I help out permanently on Thursdays. We would clean the restaurant and then make whatever we wanted then do the dishes. I would generally take home 10 pizzas or so to my mom and sisters (I grew up pretty poor so pizza was a treat) and have dozens of hot wings.
15. A guy that lived in the room next to me only ate rice to save money. He got scurvy.
16. My friend's family used to struggle over dish-washing duties: the parents would frequently get mad at the kids for leaving their dishes in the sink and not emptying the dishwasher.
One day, I was at their house with all the kids home, and when we left the dishes in the sink, the parents blew up: it was time for a family meeting. (Continued)
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Not sure where to go, I awkwardly sat in the next room, but could still hear the meeting conversation. After a few minutes of bickering, it turned out that the reason the kids unload the dishwasher was that they didn't know if it was clean or dirty was because the mom would always turn off the "clean" LED light on the dishwasher to save energy. When I heard that, I just burst out laughing, which relieved the family tension and the mom realized the ridiculousness of her statement. No more turning off the LED unless you empty the dishwasher.
Problem Solved.
17. I know a lady, who keeps on collecting those small ketchup sachets you get for free at food joints. She is known to have collected up to a kilo of ketchup in a day in her handbag from all the different food joints in the city. Later she fills up small bottles and sell it as her homemade ketchup to unsuspecting people.
18. I know a bunch of people that will burn a gallon of gas driving across town to get the "cheapest" gas. Come on man it's like 3 cents cheaper and you have a 12 gallon tank.
19. Going to the gym every other day which is my hair wash schedule and showering there to save money on hot water.
20. A large catfish in the only bathtub of my Vietnamese friends house. He told me they fatten them and purify them for a few days before eating it by feeding it a special diet. Oh, and they showered with it.
21. Guy joined our unit in the Army stationed in Germany, over a decade ago. Only eats in DFAC (Dining Facilities), only wears PT uniform off duty. Owns only a couple other pieces of clothing. Buys nothing, even puts socks on layaway at the PX.
We invited him to the clubs and he would only go if (Continued)
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We invited him to the clubs and he would only go if we paid. For everything. Didn't drink though, only water. Middle of a deployment and he's about to ETS (End of Term of Service = leave Army). He only had a 2 year contract. Ships back to Germany before flying back home to San Francisco. Buys a 3 series BMW for cash before going home.
You think you have discipline? This guy was on a different level.
22. I had a roommate in college with a back up battery. He would go to the library and charge that thing all day then use that to power his PC at night. I managed the bills in the house and I noticed $8~20 monthly reduction in electricity once he started doing that.
23. Took the kiddos trick-or-treating this past Halloween. One house had a bowl on the porch that only had restaurant peppermints and fortune cookies.
24. Someone I know bought a microwave. Knowing the store has a 90 day return policy, they return the microwave for a new one every 89 days, citing a new "problem" and often making up a problem of their own.
They've never had to replace a microwave and are always at the pinnacle of microwave technology.
25. 1) My great grandfather bought insanely cheap cigars and then cut them open for chewing tobacco.
2) 10 years ago, he lost his leg to something like gangrene because he was too cheap to go to the doctor. After they took his leg off (below the knee), he opted out of the prosthetic (it would have cost him some money, I don't know how much but anything over $20 would be too much) and carved himself a pegleg.
3) He drank one Hamms Gold beer a day. That was his beer because he got 12 packs for $2 at a drugstore by his house. Cheapest beer available.
26. A friend of mine had converted her loft space into a spare room, which her ex boyfriend moved into after (Continued)
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they split up. They were not living together prior to the split. I always found that a bit weird, because he had to go into her bedroom and pull down the loft ladder to access his own room. It must have been awkward when they had new boyfriends/girlfriends staying over.
27. One of my grandmothers would rarely flush her toilet. "But my dear, water is SO expensive." Riiight. Also she'd often sit in the dark in the evenings to the extend you'd think she wasn't in. "The price of electricity these days!" She had money. She'd just got weirder and weirder as time went on. Lived on long life canned food and powdered milk. (She was 92).
28. I cut my own hair. I haven't gotten a haircut from a barber in 3-4 years. At first it was because I could never find a decent barber, but nowadays, it's easier for me to take care of it.
29. My husband grew up very poor and his dad won't use air conditioning. Their house is hot as balls in the summer. He tried doing that with our house but my pregnant self put a stop to that real quick.
30. Back in college, I had an acquaintance who was the king of dipping out of a bill. He would pay the first round of the night because he knew everyone would remember it and it was usually the cheapest (college bar beers). Then he would not even bother to chip in the rest of the night. The worst was dinner tabs. He would all of a sudden get sleepy (pretending to be too tipsy) right before the bill was coming and put his head down when it showed up. He would than magically wake up and be perfectly fine after the rest of us split it up. Funny thing is he was so smooth at this that most people never even noticed. But I did. I remember you, jack. Don't be like jack.
31. Not actually saving money, but simply wasting energy...
My Grandma would collect the cold water from the hot tap, then re-heat it up on the stove, to dump back into the sink to wash the dishes by hand before putting them into the dishwasher to run.
32. Had a friend who would camp out behind the Good Will / Salvation Army, and when people showed up to drop off donations, would walk up to the car and ask if they wouldn't mind if he looked through what they had first. He was up front about it, and most people seemed to be okay letting him.
33. I had a friend that would carry around a Mcdonald's and Subway cup in his backpack in the summer, and if he were ever thirsty he would stop off at the nearest location, get a free refill from the machine, and be on his merry way. He said you had to refill something like 22 times until they started losing money, so he would use the cups that many times, then buy the next time, and so on. For a kid in high school, I thought it was bloody brilliant.
- Thewriter
We've all met those people who try to not-so-subtly slip into conversation that they are wealthy or "cultured," and it always feels ingenuine and cringey to witness.
It almost makes us feel bad to think about how hard they're trying to appear better off than everyone else. Almost.
Redditor LandPiranha63 asked:
"What's something that screams 'pretentious'?"
Foodie Culture
"People that say, 'I'm a foodie,' like SMH (shaking my head), just order your food and sit down."
"I loved how 'The Menu' movie poked fun at foodie culture. I have a few friends like this, and it drives me nuts."
"My girlfriend and I went to dinner with them at a hyped restaurant. We had all been there before and they are known for a particular dish. It was good, but I really like their cheeseburger (kinda like the movie)."
"My friends poked fun at me for going there to order a cheeseburger. It was the best entree and they changed their tune."
- destroys_burritos
Fancy Coffee Orders
"Someone called me pretentious yesterday. I nearly choked on my honey-cardamom latte."
- MrDagon007
Wine Tasting
"My brother once took me out to a fancy dinner for my birthday. He asked to taste the white wine, so the waiter gave him a sip in his glass."
"He swirled it around, held it up to the light, smelled it deeply, then took the sip in his mouth, slurped air through it, swished it around in his mouth, and then finally swallowed."
"He turned to the waiter and said, 'I don't know s**t about wine, but I like it. Two glasses, please!'"
"I was so embarrassed, but it was also very funny."
- PiDiddleMiDiddle
Purse Dogs
"Remember when girls used to carry around chihuahuas in their purses as a fashion trend?"
"Thank goodness accessorizing dogs like that isn't popular anymore."
- LandPiranha63
Unnecessary Ingredients
"Using expensive ingredients that are only expensive because they are expensive (edible gold is a big example)."
"When they do not have any noticeable impact on either the taste, nutritional content, or the environmental or ethics of the food. It's just wasteful."
- Narutophanfan1
Fast Fashion
"Judging me for shopping consignment for my kids. I would never spend $40 on a GAP sweatshirt for myself, let alone for my fast-growing kids. But $3? H**l yeah."
- cjati
Pretentious Music Notes
"When you tell someone you don't like a band, and they claim you just can't comprehend the music."
"Same with movies. If you don’t like a movie that they like, they will say you just didn’t get it. But no, I got it, I just thought it was s**t."
- wmgh
High-End Burger Joints
"When it's a restaurant that doesn't have combo plates when it feels like it should, like a burger restaurant that sells fries separately."
"I f**king hate that. And of course, the side of fries is six or more dollars, like what the f**k?! They’re fries, right?!"
- trogloherb
Genre Snobs
"People who s**t on genres of music that aren't their favorite one. You might be surprised to learn that there are as many pretentious metalheads, rap fans, rock fans, and jazz fans who are just as pretentious as snobby classical music 'listeners.' Luckily these kinds of pretentious music aficionados are in the minority in every music scene."
- Majestic-Love-9312
Law Students
"Harvard students/grads who invariably drop the H Bomb or say they 'went to school in Boston' within the first three sentences after meeting them."
- Edward_the_Dog
Summer Days
"Using 'summer' as a verb."
"Like, 'Well, we live in Los Angeles, but we summer in Martha's Vineyard.'"
- ppardee
Instagram-Worthy
"Intentionally including the words 'Business Class' part of your ticket in your strategically staged photo at the airport.
Table shot with wine glass and ticket showing and captioning it, 'Oh, I LOVE this wine!'"
- suibhnesuibhne
Luxury Styling
"Luxury clothing with the brands logo all over it."
- BreadfruitPhysical26
Language Affectations
"My cousin who rolls every 'R' on a word that she says in Spanish, like burrrrrrito, but not other words with two R's."
"She's been to Puerto Rico twice."
- 001235
Hypocritical
"People who complain about the smallest things and act like they can do better when they truly can’t."
- shadow_master3210
Many of these behaviors left the subReddit cringing just thinking about it, but the one thing they could absolutely agree on? These definitely screamed of being pretentious.
Thanks to many inquisitive researchers throughout our world's history, many of life's greatest phenomena have been solved and explained.
But even with the plethora of resources available at our fingertips detailing how things work or why they came to existence, some scientific facts remain baffling.
Curious to hear examples of what makes our planet so unique and astounding, Redditor rambojambo11 asked:
"What is a cool scientific fact that you know that sounds unbelievable?"
Our unique environment still holds great mysteries.
Superior Body Of Water
"Lake Superior can hold all of the water from the rest of the Great Lakes combined with room to spare."
"This is more geography, but it always blows my mind when looking at a map that the continent of South America is almost entirely east of the United States."
– Marty_Eastwood
Infrared Light
"Infrared light was discovered all the way back in 1800. By accident. With a thermometer."
"William Herschel (who also discovered Uranus) was experimenting with a prism. He wanted to see if different colors of light had different temperatures. So he had the room completely dark except a beam of light hitting a prism and casting a rainbow onto the table. He had placed thermometers in each color band to see if there was a difference. As a control, he had an additional thermometer past the end of the light below the red band."
"Except when he compared his readings, he got something strange: the control thermometer was reading the highest temperature of all. This didn't make any sense. Was his thermometer faulty? He tried a few more tests with more thermometers in other places and came to an inescapable conclusion: there must be an additional invisible "color" below red that carried more heat than any of the visible colors. He named it infrared, which just literally means 'below red'."
– sharrrper
Who's Our Guide?
"GPS tracking is not the satellites tracking the object, but the object tracking the satellites."
– UnethicalFood
Making Waves
"The first radio signal broadcasted by humans to (unintentionally) escape the Earth's ionosphere was Hitler's opening address at the 1936 Summer Olympics."
– jx3z_o
All creatures great and small are miracles of earth.
The Ultimate Pre-Dator
"Sharks pre-date trees."
– Suuperdad
Sentient Prick
"because of evolutionary caution of being eaten by the larger females, male octopus can detach his penis and quite literally throw it at his woman."
"and if that is not even impressive weird enough, that detached penis has a brain on its own, programmed to stalk the female like a f'king terminator until she is inseminated!"
"these creatures are next-level mental!"
– Lord-Legatus
Safe Licking
"Giraffes’ tongues are black and purple to prevent sunburn while they’re feeding up high."
– aprilmayjunejuly21
This Is Hard To Swallow
"A species of fruit fly holds the record for the biggest sperm cells. Drosophila bifurca has sperm that are 5.8cm long. The body length of the males is about 3mm long."
– Salvelinus_alpinus
Burning Passion
"Female ferrets die if they don't find a partner to make with. Since they don't leave "Heat" Until they're mated with, the Oestrogen overload leads to Anemia, and death."
– TheEyeOfLight
Biology is fascinating.
Tiny Organ
"Some people have extra spleen or liver that are pea sized."
– iremovebrains
Home Invasion
"The immune system does not encounter viruses and formulate an antibody that matches its shape. Instead, the immune system pumps out random antibodies that sometimes happen to match a virus it comes into contact with, and then begins to produce more of that specific antibody."
– davilambic
These impressive scientific facts are just the tip of the iceberg. There are still many more out there that are jaw-dropping.
With so many scientifically proven facts approved and accepted by the scientific community, the most confounding fact remains that there are communities that deny proven data and information–especially ones that are capable of benefitting mankind.
They say opposites attract.
Though, in order for any couple to have good chemistry, they will likely have to see eye to eye on certain things.
Or, at the very least, be open to hearing their spouse's side of things in order to avoid constant arguments.
In all likelihood, though, even married couples who seem to have more in common than not will still disagree about something.
Possibly something small, like preferring the beach to the mountains for a vacation, or indeed something more fundamental, like religious or political beliefs.
A difference of opinion neither side is ever likely to change.
"Married men of reddit, what is one thing you and your wife have completely different opinions about?
Or Blue and Black, or White and Gold?...
"Whether any given thing that we are looking at is green or blue."- ThingThatsJustBegun
Plans Of Attack
"How to spend our vacation."
"My wife is the kind to plan a whole itinerary of things to do while visiting a place."
"I, on the other hand, just want to sleep in, eat all the food that I can't eat at home, and actually relax."
"Don't get me wrong, I wanna sight see, visit touristy things, and buy souvenirs, but to have back-to-back planned events for the whole trip can be exhausting."
"Knowing these differences, however, we compromise."
"I know I can't stay at the hotel all day, and she knows that we can't go out every minute."
Check "So we plan events and plan for relaxation ."- TheQuantumRed
Everyone Needs Their Personal Space...
"What constitutes her half of the bed."- Joks_away·
Relaxing For Some, Terrifying For Others...
"The idea that true crime documentaries are a great sleeping aid."
"For her maybe, but I'm the one lying awake getting freaked out by all the stories of people killing their partners for the life insurance payout."- Stu_Thom4s
There Is A Difference Between Dirty And Messy...
"The definition of 'clean'."- papasnork
Time Is Not To Be Wasted...
"Promptness.":
"My wife god bless her cant be on time for sh*t."- Real-Problem6805
Not All Items Are Multi Purpose
"The bed."
"I think it’s a bed, and she thinks it’s a table to store all manner of things, buried and twisted under various blankets."
"Her: 'I can’t find the remote!'"
"Me: 'Have you checked the Sleeping Table?'"- Lil_MRSA
Multitasking Or Procrastinating?
"Closing the loop on practical jobs."
"I like to completely finish a single task before I start another, even if this is sometimes a bit inefficient."
"Mainly because I have a bad memory and will probably forget to finish it later."
"She likes to do about 20% of seven jobs and then gradually nudge each one towards completion over days or weeks."- stevedocherty
People Go To Great Lengths For Their Passions
"Horses."
"My wife is a successful woman and yet still lives paycheck to paycheck just so she can ride a horse."
"Baffling."- kudatimberline
...I Think Some Explanation Is Needed...
"I just have to say dishwasher right?"
"No explanation necessary?"- LeadingAd5273
How To Spend Time In Front Of A Screen
"Video games."
"She hates them and thinks they do nothing but rot the brain, I grew up playing them and still do."
"On the flip side, she absolutely loves drama tv shows."
"I find them to be the most nauseating shows ever made."
"Therefore, when she watches her shows, I go play video games."
"It allows for neither of us to complain about the others favorite past time."- Bearded_Wonder0713
Humor Is Subjective
"The objective hilarity of my off the cuff jokes."- BobRoberts01
The Great Outdoors Isn't For Everyone...
"I’m a woman, but my husband and I disagree on camping."
"I enjoy camping and I love how cheaply I can travel while camping."
"We took a 15 day vacation a couple of years ago where we stayed in state parks the whole time."
"Our TOTAL accommodations cost was $400."
"He hates it."
"He can’t do the constant dirt, trying to set up camp and cook in the rain, etc."
"He usually puts up with it for about a week each year to humor me and so we can do family vacations on our tight budget, but he is suuuuuper done by the end of that week."- etds3
Music To Some, Noise To Others...
"Rock music."
"She doesn't get it, whereas I grew up listening to it."- thecookietrain
Not Everyone Likes To Lend A Hand
"I like to contribute to group outings, if I’m asked to bring something I’m happy to and like to get a good things people will love. She hates being asked to bring things and will get the bare minimum if we don’t have anything in the cupboards."- Smirknlurking
Compatibility is an important factor in any relationship.
Then again, it's a sign of love in it's absolute truest form when people can overlook the things which drive absolutely crazy.
Teachers Break Down The Biggest Differences In Students Before And After The Pandemic
One never usually expects every kid to be excited to go to school.
But when children all over the world were forced to finish their school years from home when the pandemic hit in 2020, they all might have realized that they might have enjoyed the ins and outs of school a bit more than they thought.
So, as schools started to gradually re-open, children practically couldn't wait to get back into a classroom.
For the most part, that is.
While many proud parents and teachers posted many happy pictures of children joyously returning to their classrooms, in no time at all, students quickly realized that going to school was going to be a completely different experience than before the pandemic.
Even today, when most, if not all, schools have dropped the protocols they implemented when re-opening after the pandemic, teachers have noticed changes big and small in the behavior of their students.
"Teachers of Reddit, what are the biggest differences you've seen in your students pre and post pandemic?
The Effects Of A Change In Envrionment
"High school teacher here."
"These kids hit two major disruptions: Going remote, and coming back."
"Most kids learned almost no content when teaching was remote."
"There are always those few who will learn no matter what, but honestly, having the ability to have a video game or fun website on in a different tab with no one able to tell was too big a temptation."
"Not to mention the kids who were forced into childcare roles of younger relatives during school hours, or those in families that had more people than tech and had to prioritize who could work when."
"Some amazing kids rose to the occasion, other kids just acted like regular kids."
"They are slowly recovering now."
"But a significant minority did better when school was remote."
"One girl had a hard time focusing, so she brought her phone into the kitchen and cooked all period while also answering all the questions and participating in all the activities."
"And one boy, for whom socialization was the hardest thing, burned through online classes once he wasn't held back by having to deal with people."
"These kids had a much harder time on their return (and unfortunately in the boy's case, his success during remote school meant some of his services were taken away only for him to crash and burn once he was brought back)."- HobbitInHufflepuff
Deadlines Lost Their Meaning
"A lot of students got used to not handing in work on time or at all."
"During the pandemic kids were getting passes because of tech problems and so on."
"We were told just mark it down as incomplete and move on."
"No reason was needed to be given."
"Now I'm finding that when I give a project and tell them to work on it at home, I have, at best, half my kids who will and the others are shocked that I was being serious."
"It will be interesting to see if they get back into the swing of things as time moves on."- thejonfrog
Change In Attention Span
"As a high school teacher in Australia (which is notorious for how we screwed up our latest Internet upgrade), I've noticed students might have a shorter attention span overall, but boy, do they switch on and pay attention for the first 10 minutes."
"It's fricking eerie."
"Welcome, but eerie."- joalheagney
"Post pandemic students have even shorter attention spans."
"Distractions are a major problem."
"Getting back into the structure and focus of in-person learning has been more difficult than expected."- StanYelnats3·
Lack of Enthusiasm
"To put things into perspective, I am a chemistry teacher."
"There are big gaps in knowledge, especially mathematical."
"Asking basic algebraic questions leaves a lot of blank faces when in previous years it was a non-issue for most students."
"The attention span has dropped to almost nothing."
"In previous years it was understood that cellphones shouldn't be out and if you were on a Chromebook you should be doing work."
"That's a huge issue at the moment."
"Almost everyone seems burned out."
'While there are still a few exceptions, there seems to be an overall desire to not be in class that I have not seen."
"Before, it was always an issue in the beginning of the year but would subside as we got to interesting stuff."
"I have not felt motivated to do the interesting stuff this year (I still am) because they show just as much enthusiasm as when I just give a worksheet."- youritalianjob
Delays Of All Sorts
"Elementary academic intervention specialist (mostly upper elementary) here."
"Most notable differences:"
"Selayed handwriting skills."
"Better at using technology."
"Social-emotional maturity delays."
"More difficulty with delayed gratification."
"Higher interest in time for peer interaction."
"Less proficiency in self regulation."
"Higher anxiety."- tiny_butt_toucher
Volume Control Issues
"Besides the obvious ones, something that I didn’t expect was that they are so loud."
"They’re completely unaware of how much noise they make."
"Pre-pandemic, even young kids were used to being in public places where they had to be quiet."
"School, church, libraries, movies, etc."
"As soon as we came back in person, it became extremely evident that these kids had spent the past two years in the comforts of their own homes and on classes with mute buttons."
"Even if they’re just sitting there doing their work, they’ll tap their hands, feet, pencils, they’ll hum to themselves, they’ll make any and all noises far beyond what I had ever seen before."
"And it’s really hard to get them to stop, because they don’t even realize they’re doing it."
"I teach second grade."- nctm96
Disinterest in Extracurriculars
"Involvement in extracurriculars is at an all time low."
"Fine Arts programs are failing due to student numbers, lack of teachers and funding."
"Programs are being cut at all levels."
"Not enough students are joining and there are not enough teachers for the students who do."
"Great times."- Akairichii
It's Not Just The Children Who Have Changed
"Inner city teacher here."
"As others have said, the attention span is lower."
"Many kids don't watch tv, they just play on their phone."
"Most may watch a show while being on their phone."
"It's all about next content."
"Something else is the spoon feeding they want."
"If a quick google search doesn't give an immediate answer, it's hopeless."
"They won't click a link to read three paragraphs to find an answer, they want google to give them the paragraph out of context, with the bolded part."
"On top of this is parents."
"Kids in many new aspects have a relationship with their parents that is friend based and not parent-child."
"Kids run wild and do what they please with little repercussions."
"Parents expect you, the teacher, to drive their kids even though we see the kid for an hour a day."
"It's all just passing the buck."- Parki2
Teachers often notice changes in certain children after they return from two months of summer vacation.
So changes were expected when children returned to school after the world shut down as a result of the pandemic.
Making one realize all the more how important it is to recognize how teachers are among the most "essential" workers of them all.