This article based on a survey taken by the Guides Association tells us the dreadful news that girls today don’t know how to boil an egg.
I appreciate that the article is based on research done by an all-female organisation, but surely the emphasis should be that young people (regardless of gender) are not gaining important life skills – like the ability to feed themselves cheaply. Of course ‘mothers going out to work’ is cited as one of the reasons for this problem. Working mothers can be conveniently blamed for most things I find, those that cannot can always be blamed on single mothers – as a working, single mother I am glad to know that I am probably responsible for almost all problems in modern society!
When I was at school 10 years ago, the cooking skills taught in home economics revolved around victoria sponge cakes and strange creations made by melting mars bars, not in creating good food on a budget – something that would have been more useful in the relatively deprived area of the country the school was in.
I rarely eat any processed food, I love to cook and cook at least one meal from scratch every day, my parents cook but I have taught myself as it really isn’t difficult! I have also taught myself to fix washing machines, carpentry, how to do my own taxes and a myriad of other things that this report thinks that ‘girls’ are incapable of doing due to their education… none of these things were taught in my school.
Perhaps they should be, to be self reliant and not need to ‘get a man in’ to do simple jobs is a great strength. To be able to make a nice meal when you only have a few quid can make all the difference, to know how to budget, not be scared of your tax return and know how to deal with banks can save a lot of stress… but these apply to both men and women particularly as we are living in a time when more people than ever before are living alone – either by choice or circumstance – and need to be able to take care of all aspects of their life.