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Friday, July 12, 2019

Life skills



I’m returning to another of my pet peeves -people who don’t have basic life skills. What set me off this time was a friend’s mother passed away. He’s now spending the summer at his dad’s because dad does not know how to take care of himself. The guy doesn’t know how to cook, clean, or do laundry. My friend is recovering from a back injury but has to spend his time babysitting his father.

One can argue that is a generational thing. However, my dad knew how to take care of himself. He learned at an early age. In fact, dad owned sewing machines, not mom. Of course, dad not sew clothes much. Mostly it was things like hunting packs, seat covers for his Jeep, tool bags and the like. Still, he knew how to cook, clean and all that.

A guy I knew got divorced in his 30s and didn’t know the first thing about cooking. The poor guy lived on woopie pies and Pepsi. Had he not soon remarried he probably would have died from a heart attack.

When I was dating my lovely wife I cooked for her. Back then I knew a local butcher who’d custom cut steaks for me. Trust me. Girls think guys who can cook are sexy.

On the flip side, girls should know their way around tools. My girls certainly know to fix things. They should also know how to change a flat tire or do basic auto maintenance.

I also think that everybody should know basic firearm safety. Even if you have no interest in taking up shooting sports you should at least know how to clear a gun and make it safe. That’s just another handy life skill.

-Sixbears

10 comments:

  1. Yeah, the high school Home Ecc. courses should have been mandatory for EVERYBODY. Sooner or later, you are on your own and knowing how to construct - fix - make items should be common knowledge. Car repairs though - many vehicles now require a code reader on what *night* be the problem. Even then, special knowledge on how to get the parts requires a shop manual. Many new cars don't even have a spare tire - a can of Fix-A-Flat and number for AAA is their solution. I can't get my mind around that - what happens when the tire is 'blown out' completely ?

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    1. It's funny how the skills we need on a regular basis are not taught in the schools anymore.

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  2. My wife has never LET me do those sort of things. Luckily, I grew up doing some of them and looked after myself for a few years before we married. I may not WANT to do some of those things anymore, but I can if the need arises.

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    1. It's good to have the skills -even if you don't get to use them.

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  3. “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

    ― Robert A. Heinlein

    I always loved that quote.. teach your children anything and everything you can do..make it fun.

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    1. It's one of my favorite quotes in literature. I read a lot of Heinlein growing up. No surprise there, right?

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  4. I've been cooking since I was 8 years old. When we did home eco, I was already in charge of the family dinner. I learned how to change a flat from my mum. In our family, everybody had to learn how to do everything. Even more important, we learned how to find out what we didn't yet know when we needed it.
    I pity the folks that cant even make their own toast.

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    1. I'm surprised by the high number of people who don't know how to make mashed potatoes -from potatoes.

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  5. One learns from doing and experience. It is helpful if you have a mentor, but many people do not have someone to teach them.

    When I was in fourth grade my mom was in the hospital giving birth. I washed clothes using the wringer washer and knew how to clean and cook some things. Well I got the bright idea to make fried chicken. It was a beautiful golden brown. I was so proud, but when dad took a bite blood oozed out. We had to put it back in the cast iron skillet to finish cooking. I remembered next time.

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    1. We learn from our mistakes so it's best we make a lot of them early. :)

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