The Hub and I have been gradually learning over the past few years that there are a lot of young people that don't know how to do a lot of stuff that almost all of us (50 and over at least) had to learn when we were growing up. Now granted this younger generation can slay fictional bad guys, and dragons on a video game better than any previous generation and boy can they text message, but a lot of what this younger generation is good at has no real world application, and part of the blame for this goes to the parents of these young people. It is easier to let a kid sit in front of a TV, or a computer playing a game than it is to take them outside and teach them how to fix a car or to grow a garden. It's easier to let your kid text message friends or surf the Internet for hours than it is to teach them to sew, cook real food or to even properly do their own laundry.
Teaching your child to do things that they don't usually learn in school takes several things from a parent. First, the parents have to give up their free time to spend it with their kid teaching them how to do things. Second, the parent needs to be willing to allow the child to have a little freedom to try the new skill they are learning without fear that the parent will get upset if they mess something up. Third the child has to be in a stable enough home that they have time and a place to work on these new skills. OR they need really good grandparents living close by to teach them all these things. Luckily, for my grandchildren the garage is pretty close.
When I was growing up my mother allowed me to use her sewing machine to create and sew Barbie doll clothes for my Barbie and later to sew things for myself. If the thread got jammed in the bobbin she would have to come and fix it, but she didn't usually fuss at me. I don't really like to cook that much, but I love to bake. I went through a stage where I wanted to make cakes from scratch. They sometimes were good but occasionally they turned out flat, or just down right nasty, but my parents didn't stop me from trying. I learned to knit well enough to knit a few things. I Macraméd a bunch of potted plant holders. I grew various things outside in the summer. Most of which died. I painted my bedroom by myself and picked out wallpaper with psychedelic butterflies on it and hung it by myself. I could play every common card game or board game there was at that time. Because my mother and other grown ups spent time with me and showed me how to do these things. When I was growing up kids were shown how to unclog the toilet, and how to put radiator fluid in their car,and other simple car and house hold repairs as well.
The problem is now we have a generation of adults that don't know how to do hardly anything like this for themselves and they can no longer afford to pay someone to fix every little thing for them because times are tough. AND I blame their parents.
Our own beloved CW didn't know how to properly do laundry when she joined our family,she has poor organizational skills because of being dragged from home to home and she claims she can cook, but she really doesn't know how to cook any kind of raw meat or most fresh vegetables. She admitted yesterday that she had never snapped green beans or shucked fresh peas. She thought it was some sort of raised in the south skill, which she was not privy to due to living mostly up north!
My mother is still alive and teaching grandchildren to sew and bake. And I will be sure to teach my grandchildren everything I can before I leave this planet. Maybe what I teach them will turn out to be just something they do for fun or as a hobby, or it maybe something that they need to do and doing it themselves saves them money during a financially tough time. But hopefully many years from now when I am gone they will think about me as they do the things I have taught them and remember that grandma loved teaching them new things and spending time with them.
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