Electric Bugaboo

Is it possible to fail at homeschooling before you’ve even started? If so, I’ve accomplished that.

I had grand plans to have the kids learn alongside me, about the various international plug types and voltages, etc. We have a USB charger with various converters, so I thought, “Hey, I should label the different pieces with which countries we’ll use them in. That should be simple and quick.”

Ha.

I googled it and discovered that in some places the plugs are labeled numerically. In others they are done by alphabet. Some of the plug types work in multiple letters/numbers. Some countries use more than one type of plug. And there’s not a single continent that has a consistent type of plug or voltage. Some plugs are grounded, and others are not. I still have no real idea how voltage relates to what items I’ll be attempting to charge.

We don’t even know for sure which countries we’ll be going to anyway, so trying to just list the applicable ones isn’t helpful either. And the plugs that are called “UK” or “EU” or “AU” can be used in all sorts of non-corresponding countries outside of the UK, EU, and AU.

Gah! My head is spinning, and I give up. I’m just going to pack all of them for the entire trip, jab whatever fits into any outlets we find, and hope I don’t explode anything. And I’m definitely not trying to teach the kids any of this, or they will immediately lose all faith in me as their future teacher.

I. Give. Up.