"I can't cook" or "I don't know how to sew"

[Dreamstalker]

I like to say that my junior high graduating class was one of the last to actually have Home Ec as a requirement and I'm probably right. My mom is a private chef, so I learned a lot of what I needed to know before actually taking the class (I was doing a lot of the grocery shopping at age 10, which nowadays would be met with a call to CPS).

I lost all inclination in preparing and cooking food when I would find most of my ingredints gone by the time I needed them, shared kitchen shared fridge doesn't equal shared food.

This. Especially in college when I was sharing an apartment. Yes, the grocery store was practically next door, but...that's MY food! I'm not leaving the oven on while I run grab a replacement for something you ate...no, I don't trust you to watch it. Oh, my [food item] is 'yucky'? It's MINE. (one of the advantages to being addicted to Asian food, anything I bought at the Japanese grocery would remain untouched)

My sewing ability extends to buttons (which also probably means I can sew on a patch if needed) and basic 'attaching stuff', which is good enough I guess. I can also change a tire, check fluids (although I haven't actually done either in quite awhile) and replace a windshield wiper. I guess dad figured that if I wasn't going to learn how to drive I should at least be able to do something useful that's car-related.

[HYHYBT]

My washer's agitator is slightly taller than the tub. I put clothes in loosely, and not higher than the water level will be. (And new items that might bleed get run by themselves; I'll open the lid and see how colored the water gets. Nothing I've had in the last 20 years or so has kept bleeding past the first couple of washes, and anything that did I'd be unlikely to keep.)

[blas87]

I never learned how to sew, but I'd more or less figure just get a new pair of jeans or deal with the holes, because my job puts holes in all of my shirts right below the chest, where I stand at the table and work with tools and metal. Over the years, older shirts become work shirts, so I can just toss them when they get too holey.

It may seem bitchy, but after my big meltdown and my new approach on life and dating, I won't even associate with someone who is so sheltered (by choice or not) that they can't use a stove to make even Mac and Cheese or good old Ramen, or if they have no idea how a bank account works (as far as...if you don't have money in it and you didn't "opt out" at the bank, DON'T KEEP USING YOUR CARD!) or any of that basic adult stuff that everyone should pretty much know by reaching adult age, and that also includes keeping a halfway decent place to live.

[Aethian]

Apparently, I overload it every time. I dunno.

If you have a top loader the clothes shouldn't go much above the top fin or six inches from the top of the center post. If front loader the clothes shouldn't go past the glass in the door. Some instructions saying you should still see a top inch on the glass window.

[crashhelmet]

My mom was an accountant and through various points of the year, tax season, ends of fiscal quarters, etc, she'd have to work late. My dad, even in retirement, is your stereotypical Marine Corps Drill Instructor. With the exception of cooking a steak, everything would get burned if we let him cook. A complete "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" mentality, it seemed.

My older sister was more interested in being a teenage and then young adult woman than helping around the house and my brother was usually in rehearsals after school or his own job to cook, so that left me to do it.

My grandmother has this vision, as all latin grandmothers seem to have, that I'd need to learn how to cook. She feared that I'd marry a woman that couldn't cook, so she started teaching me how to cook when I was around 7 years old. I was able to take what she taught me and use it to feed my family when my mom had to work late. It was either that or we suffered from my dad's burned green beans.

Funny thing about it all is that knowing how to cook is the only reason i was never a "Starving Musician." If all else failed, I could get a part time job as a line cook somewhere.

As for washing and sewing, I was in the generation that had to take Home Ec in junior high and learned to sew there. if my mom was still alive, she'd tell you that I still don't know how to use the wash machine and would never teach me how as she was afraid I'd break hers. Apparently, I overload it every time. I dunno.

[violiav]

Allegedly my friends co-workers wife literally cannot do anything. And it's not a case of medical necessity, like being paralyzed or infirm, she just doesn't do things. I mean she works and everything, but she doesn't do anything. She doesn't bathe herself, she doesn't do any of the chores, or cook or take care of the kids. I tried to figure out if she was mentally handicapped or something, but my friend tells me that nothing actually seems wrong with her.

[Racket_Man]

People who make doing laundry more complicated than it needs to be, for some reason, like to look down on those who don't as not doing it "properly." The clothes come out clean and undamaged, it was done properly.

.

You have to remember that some colored cloths "bleed" off dye. Not fun to suddenly have pink whites when a red item was accidently washed with whites.

This was also back in the day before we had all of the various kinds of fabrics that you could get away with wash and wear.

I always washed things like underwear (before the advent/acceptance of colored shorts) and my sweaty white work socks in hot water with a little bleach to clean, sanitize and de-stink them.

Cloths and fabrics are much much different these days.

I taught myself to iron cloths. Got pretty good at it for a while. Mind you this was not military dress uniform grade razor folds or creases but I did wash and iron all of my corp style dress cloths ie pants and shirts.

[HYHYBT]

Youtube Chick was half-naked because she hadn't finished getting her clothes ready. You were watching her iron them, weren't you?

First my Mother taught me how to properly do laundry when I was a teenager. not just throw everything in at once on cold and hope for the best.

People who make doing laundry more complicated than it needs to be, for some reason, like to look down on those who don't as not doing it "properly." The clothes come out clean and undamaged, it was done properly.

I enjoy cooking, but only know how to make a few things off the top of my head because I hate washing pots and pans and I live alone. It's not worth the bother for just me.

Sewing on buttons would be useful to learn. The idea is simple enough; it looks like I could figure it out myself if only I knew how to make the beginning of the thread stay put. But by the time I start losing buttons off something, it's generally in pretty bad shape anyway in ways sewing won't fix.

[eltf177]

I saw _way_ too much of this back in college in the early 80's; so-called adults who had no idea how to balance a checkbook, do laundry or even make a bed! It was absolutely pathetic. I'm not sure how some of these "adults" managed to survive this long...

My brother and I were expected to change our own beds every week and do laundry on the weekends by the time we were in high school. We also each cooked Saturday and Sunday nights; full meals, not leftovers or pre-packaged items. Mom did teach us how to sew buttons before we left for college just in case, but anything more like rips or tears she would do when we came home (she refused to let us touch her sewing machine). We already had bank accounts and knew how to balance checkbooks.

It was hilarious to see students spend their allowance on booze or pizza as soon as they got it, then tried to bum money for more. I more than once had to tell someone "HELL NO!" to requests/demands for money or help.

Helicopter parenting is nothing new, it's just more noticable now...

[Sarah Valentine]

I'm an amazing cook, I can maybe sorta halfway sew, but as far as knitting goes I'm hopeless. It'd be easier teaching a cat to play violin than to knit something.

[AccountingDrone]

I can cook, sew, change a flat tire, check and add oil, brake fluid, coolant, gap a spark plug, use a timing gun ... by original training I am a machinist/inside outside mechanic and have worked as a rad whore in the nuclear power industry. I went to university, and am an accountant and have worked in USDA Commodity logistics.

I used to make spare money going to the various Navy, Army and Air Force bases with friends prior to inspection parades and sewing on insignias, hemming pants and repairing uniforms. At a buck a patch it mounts up. I can iron a set of dress whites or blues in 10 minutes, fold and knot a neckerchief properly in 2 minutes.

[SongsOfDragons]

I've taught myself to cook. Mum never bothered to teach me mucj other than the odd packet-mix baking at half term - although that said I have always been kitchen-independant, as she would leave my bowl, spoon and cup in the cereal cupboard, a jug of milk out for me in the bottom shelf of the fridge, and taught me to get my own breakfast from when I was about two-and-a-half to stop having to wake her up to feed me brekkie O.o

Last year it just happened. I bought a few how to cook books - not just lists of recipes, acual instruction. Delia Smith was the queen of that. Inspired partly by bake off I was making my own meals from scratch - to the point my homemade mac and cheese is now muchly loved ^^ and I even brought back a couple of experiments from the Neherlands which went raher well (poffertjes and those sausagemeat-in-bacon things) My mum is shocked!

Our school has a massive tech department that rotated you through food, textiles and woodwork for three years until GCSE, where you got to pick one to take: those three on top of the new-for-year-10 graphics and electronics. I think we had quite an equal mix of genders in those five through GCSE. I took Graphics and carried it further onto A-level; I suspect the CAD both involved may have helped get me my current job ^^

Sewing? Ah. Mm. Housemate...

[ExRetailDrone]

I've never been much for sewing (neither is my mom, so there was no one to easily learn from), although I can sew on a button and mend small tears. It might not look great, but it'll be fixed I also sadly never took advantage of learning to cook from my mom when I was living at home, but I've since become very fond of cooking and can make some pretty tasty things. I would like to take some cooking classes to get more comfortable with ingredients so I don't have to rely so much on recipes. I have been washing my own clothes since high school or before, however. It boggles my mind that there are people out there who can't do such simple things. Even if you've never been taught, the internet is a wonderful place where you can at least learn the basics of such things as cooking and sewing and washing clothes.

One of my husbands coworkers is the worst I've ever heard about. She's in her early- to mid-40s and her mom still does her laundry o.O She also got her FIRST job in 2009. Yeah.

[Racket_Man]

Well let's see

First my Mother taught me how to properly do laundry when I was a teenager. not just throw everything in at once on cold and hope for the best.

Sewing ---- I can do basic sewing and repair work. not the greatest but I can get by-- I can sew up a cuff or hemline, buttons and small rips-- anything beyond that is uncharted territory for me

My Mother was a master at sewing. she used to make clothes from store bought patterns on tissue paper.

Cooking ---- HMMMM I started out as a Chemistry Major. Give me a decent cookbook and I can go to town. Some things I have experimented with and they come out decent like split pea soup, my/my Ex's version of chili and several other simple type "throw things in a pot. simmer for a while and serve" .

back in my early days Home Econ WAS considered a girl class.

[fireheart17]

that's what home ec class used to be for. learning life skills. but some school don't teach it anymore, or it's considered the "girl glass". >.<
l.

My two high schools split the "home ec" components into:

-Cooking
-Textiles (usually placed under the "technology" banner)
-Parenting. Yes, parenting. Those baby dolls that cry at random times? I'm talking about THAT class.

Usually by Year 11/12 though, those classes are reserved as more of a "career" choice than anything.

in the grocery store you'll hear people asking how to cook an avocado or if it's safe to eat bread made with yeast.

I have a feeling that part of it is also due to the 10001 tips we get every week about weight loss. "Eat this", "don't eat this, you'll get fat" "oh, it's OK to eat this now because it actually contains this" etc. So the question about yeast isn't too far-off. Asking how to cook an avocado though....yeah.

Youtube. I learned how to iron stuff from a half-naked chick on youtube. I'm not sure why she was half-naked though.

Sex sells


As for me, I've learned how to do everything from my mum or I was self-taught with one exception: washing my clothes. I can hand wash, but I have not touched the washing machine . Usually though, my mum or boyfriend will do the washing under the proviso that I hang out/put in dryer/iron whatever clothes I do chuck in the load. I think it's also the fear of churning out a pink bedsheet or a shrunken t-shirt. (my boyfriend-who lives on his own-has done the former. He got chewed out for that one)

That said, I CAN read a care tag.

Cooking wise...I'm rough, but improving. My dad admitted he never learned to cook until he left home.