Oh dear Casey, quite amazing ... she didn't graduate from the University of Life it seems.

I half remember a quote thats goes something like " intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable, commonsense is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad".

casey's daughter - it is a case of 'gifts differing', personality.

The best advice for casey is to do what we all must learn to do, which is to reduce to routines some of the common things (eg keys) that can cause problems when we are a bit inattentive. 

Examples could be: finding ONE spot for keys and other items needed when leaving the house; and, having a simple practical list for attacking some of life's little challenges.  An instance of the last-mentioned is to have a box for receipts and to use an electronic diary with a reminder warning facility for what I call the rituals (paying accounts, birthdays, insurance and car registration payments).

casey will always be streets ahead of the herd where the attributes that matter these days are concerned, in keeping on the crest of the wave of change and understanding and appreciating the complexity of life (always grey, never B&W).  She will need some practical advice and rules for handling the routine and mundane.

Imagine though if she was as thick as two short planks, had no idea that people might differ in personality and learning preferences, that life wasn't black and white etc.  What if she wasn't such a good citizen and was boorish, opinionated, habitually made poor decisions and, was into drugs and had more tatts than teeth?

Some of us are blessed as parents by the children we raised and always with our 'L' plates on :)  Thanks to the other adults who helped, the teachers, coaches and extended family, to name a few.

Casey, scientists believe "common sense" is genetic. You daughter probably takes after you :)

 I believe I have good commonsense and just cannot believe that others do so many damn stupid things...they just don't use what is between their ears. 

for instance if I am taking something heavy outside I go and open the back door then go and get whatever it is I am going to be carrying...in the past have seen someone in my family pick up the heavy article walk to the door then scream out for someone to come and open door..duh!!

:) I'm sure many of us can recall a moment when common sense or accuracy deserted us.

I'm just extremely grateful that no-one had a camera on hand to record mine.

Unlike these poor souls LOL.

Casey, look after your daughter in law. She may have a lot on her mind?

Quote casey: "I could go on but she thinks I am not real smart as like most people on this forum I left school and started work at 15."

I agree with your daughter-in-law. I really hope she doesn't read what you've written about her..certainly won't help family relations :(

I suspect we are plagued by an overabundance of redundant uni graduates who can't find real jobs and end up on government commisions and other bodies to obfuscate progress with useless regulation, redtape and paperwork!

I'm sure you can all nominate many such bodies and gov. seems to enjoy generatiing more and more of these instead of making any real decisions themselves(its the commisions fault)

 Perhaps common sense lies in not embarrassing the people who show that they have very little of it.

Common sense is making the best use of your opportunities.

Common sense is being kind to people around you (and hoping that they will return the favour.)

Common sense is often gained from pure experience and learning after the silly mistakes are made.

Common sense is that while not having gone to university, it doesn’t give any of us an immunity from doing and saying stupid things. We have all done something a bit crazy in our time, and mostly don’t want to own up to it either.

This is definitely not common sense, LOL

In the world of practical engineering we had a name for fellow engineers lacking common sense, 'educated idiots'. Unfortunately there are too many educated idiots around, and not only in engineering.

Common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in everyone's garden.

 A lesson in common sense!

A man is driving down a road that passes a mental hospital. He hears a loud noise, and his car lurches. He realizes that he’s had a blow-out. He pulls over to the side of the road, and sure enough, he has a flat tyre. He gets the spare out of the trunk and begins to change the tyre. He jacks up the car, removes the wheel with the flat tyre, and to prevent the lug nuts from getting lost, he carefully places them in the hubcap. So far, so good. But, as he is installing the spare, he bumps his foot against the hubcap, which sends the lug nuts rolling. Oh, no: all four of the lug nuts fall through the grate of a storm sewer. The man curses out loud, and hollers

“What am I gonna do now?”

A soft voice comes from the other side of a nearby fence. The voice says

“You can take one lug nut off each of your other 3 wheels, and put them on the spare. That will give you three on each wheel, which will hold your wheels on well enough for you to get to the service station down the road.”

The driver walks over to the fence, sees the sign that says “State Mental Hospital,” and says to the guy on the other side of the fence:

“Hey, that’s very smart thinking. So how come you’re in a place like this?”

The mental patient smiles, shrugs, and says “Sir, I’m in here ‘cuz I’m crazy, not ‘cuz I’m stupid.”