Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As for teaching home ec type things to your kids, I think it's a FANTASTIC idea. My father did all the ironing in my house growing up since my mother ironed his dress whites the wrong way one day when he was in the Navy, so she never touched the iron again. When I started private school in 9th grade, my father got tired of the extra ironing for me, so he made me learn. And I'm glad he did, because I made money in college ironing for my friends and friends of friends.
My daughter who is 14 is an accomplished cook. My son who is 11 is trying very hard to go beyond mac and cheese, but both use the stove (and in the case of daughter, the oven) quite frequently. My husband is the short-order cook (his words) and I am the gourmet cook, ethnic food cook and baker (hubby burns cookies!). Both kids do their own laundry, and sometimes I can have either do my less sensitive loads, and they do it soup-to-nuts (wash, fold and put away). I just can't get my daughter into the needle arts for some reason which as a quilter, crocheter, sewer, doll maker, I am a little disappointed that she does not share the same love of fabric and yarn as I do. Eventually, both these kids need to learn how to iron, another lost art. At the very least, I think they should learn simple sewing things, like how to mend, take up seams, repair tears, sew back buttons, etc. I count on my son more than my daughter to do gardening stuff...pruning, fertilizing, killing weeds. Daughter loves to plant, but neither are much into getting hot and dirty in the yard!
It was my father who did all the cooking in our house and he prided himself on being an excellent chef. It was a relaxing hobby for him and a change of pace from an executive job.
My father loves cooking and he's an excellent chef. I think it might have something to do with his large Italian family, and when his mother passed away my mother yoinked a whole bunch of her recipes. My brother is a very good cook as well. All the females in my family (myself included) try, but never seemed to get anything quite right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GJHJ
When I started private school in 9th grade, my father got tired of the extra ironing for me, so he made me learn. And I'm glad he did, because I made money in college ironing for my friends and friends of friends.
That reminds me of a time in high school when I was taking a home ec-type class (a fashion class where we did a lot of sewing and such) and I was the only one in the class (of 24 girls) who knew how to use an iron! I was appalled!
As for sewing, my mother was a seamstress so we all learned the basics at the very least. Which actually paid off finally when I sewed some buttons back onto my boyfriend's pants for him.
when I was a teenager my mom was tired of ironing...my dad said he'd pay me a buck a shirt...I was all over that and can iron very well...now? I own an iron and ironing board but....things now are fairly wrinkle free
I love to cook and DH is amazing in the kitchen....None of our kids like to cook so much...our oldest daughter at 27 is realizing it's necessary....our son is a Marine so....and the youngest with a family is always calling me asking how to make something....They all so appreciate a home cooked meal by mom
However, laundry and cleaning....they're freaks of nature....and they do it with joy...
Funny how my mom can sew anything, crochet and knit and none of us even attempt it....
Yeah, my mom is a good seamstress also, but I was blessed with 10 thumbs LOL-she is teaching my girls and one of them actually seems good at it! I can do very basic repair (holes, buttons) and have taught my boys that. Any little bit helps.
When my kids were small, I got sick and was in bed for 6 weeks, unable to get up. Those kids had to eat peanutbutter sandwiches that whole time since their Dad was lost in the kitchen. Soon as I got better, I taught them all to cook and each one was assigned a night to cook.
Both of my son's cook STILL! My oldest one taught his wife how to cook. My daughter is a better cook than I am. My middle son cooked and would sit at the sewing machine watching me sew and asking me questions about sewing. He took home Ec just so he could make something on the sewing machine and his friends not think he was a sissy.
I work with a bunch of guys where we are confined and everyone has to do their own washing and housekeeping. It amazes me how many have never held a broom and don't know what to do with it. They haven't a clue as to how to wash their clothes, much less how to load a washing machine.
Then we get one that is better at all that than any woman I have ever met and that love to cook and keeps asking me for recipes to go home and make for their families. Right now we have one that folds his clothes perfectly and has all the guys now folding theirs where as before they just shoved them down in a box in a wad and that is where they stayed until the wore them. I laugh everytime I see them folding their clothes now.
My middle son cooked and would sit at the sewing machine watching me sew and asking me questions about sewing. He took home Ec just so he could make something on the sewing machine and his friends not think he was a sissy.
My brother was a boy scout so he actually learned the basics mostly from that. My mother taught home more complex things like the different kinds of stitches, and he's actually really good at it.
Quote:
It amazes me how many have never held a broom and don't know what to do with it.
I work in retail and our store has a tile floor. At the end of the night while the managers are counting down the registers, the associates are supposed to sweep and mop the floors and take the trash out. It's so frustrating and also somewhat amusing to see the new hires holding the broom like "what am I supposed to do with this thing?" and looking at the mop bucket like "what is that big yellow contraption?"
And then they don't even know how to use either properly and the floors look like crap the next day. We also had the issue where the associates couldn't grasp the concept that the mop bucket needed fresh water every day and they'd be mopping the floor with disgusting black sludgy water!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
). Both kids do their own laundry, and sometimes I can have either do my less sensitive loads, and they do it soup-to-nuts (wash, fold and put away). I just can't get my daughter into the needle arts for some reason which as a quilter, crocheter, sewer, doll maker, I am a little disappointed that she does not share the same love of fabric and yarn as I do. Eventually, both these kids need to learn how to iron, another lost art. At the very least, I think they should learn simple sewing things, like how to mend, take up seams, repair tears, sew back buttons, etc. I count on my son more than my daughter to do gardening stuff...pruning, fertilizing, killing weeds. Daughter loves to plant, but neither are much into getting hot and dirty in the yard!
I was appalled! 
