One of my daughters recently set out to paint a small bedside table she had bought from an op shop. She loved the shape but not the colour. Nothing remarkable here, except she is the daughter least likely to undertake anything related to craft or manual labour.
Once the task was completed the table looked ‘really good’. My daughter announced she had adequate skills at painting. Since then we have used ‘adequate skills’ to describe what’s required in all kinds of domains. We even turned it into a jingle:
Adequate skills, adequate skills, [Name] has adequate skills at [Domain]
Yes, in life we will need to develop superior skills in one or two areas, and we’ll hope to help our children do the same, but for everything else there’s ‘adequate skills.’
Tim Adeney 