The other day I heard a mom mention that she paid $24 to have her daughters uniform hemmed, that is a crime!!! But the reality is that basic homemaking skills are not being passed on and things like cooking, sewing and more are lost skills. I want my girls to be able to do things for themselves and not have to pay an insane price for hemmed skirts or throw out a shirt when a button falls off. My grandmother and my mom both taught me to sew, I have since let that skill lapse and regret it. I can hem pants and sew buttons but for more complicated things I need to brush up my skills. My girls have already started learning by using some learn to sew kits and ar emakign gret progress. Now that they have a basic idea of stitches we have moved on to stamped cross stitch tea towels, next up things like buttons and hems.
Cooking is another skill that is disappearing. I LOVE to cook and it is such a gift to our family. Not only do we eat healthier but our budget appreciates it. My girls have already taken an interest in learning how to cook and have started following basic recipes all on their own. The current favorite is cakes from scratch with homemade icing, they love to browse my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book that my mom gave me when I first got married. I recently got a new silicone cake pan that the cake just pops right out of, this has been a game changer for my girls. No more tears over a cake that wouldn’t come out of the pan. My oldest completely made dinner the other night from her Williams Sonoma American Girl Cook Book, it was delicious and so nice to have someone else plan and cook dinner!
The last group of things I will be teaching my girls are basic laundry and cleaning skills. It shocks me how many adults have no idea how to do basic things! Things like ironing a shirt properly so you look presentable for an important event or meeting. My husband has been teaching them DIY skills as he does stuff around the house. All my girls can paint a room and my 7 year old is a whiz at changing outlets! I am sure there are more skills I will add to the list, but this is it so far. I want my girls to be self sufficient and not need to pay a handyman or seamstress for things they can reasonably do themselves. Plus how great will it be to have 5 skilled daughters to help me out in my old age!
I will have to recruit family for things like knitting and crocheting as I never learned and other skills as well. I just want them to learn it all. I know there are things I wish I had learned and never did!
When age appropriate. Changing your oil/tire/spark plugs. They shouldn’t have to wait around for a male loved one to do it. Or pay the insane prices, at the quick change places. My mom had my brother in law teach me as an older teen. She felt they were life skills for any driver. Not just boys. My God Daghter’s fiancé is teaching my teens car maintenance, as well as how to change disc break pad. (Saving me hundreds in the process).
Those are great things to know too, I am not as good in the car area wish I was better!
It’s so important that our kids learn to do things for themselves. It’s a skill that many people don’t pass on any longer.
Yes it is, just because you can pay for it doesn’t mean you should! Do some things yourself.
I’m with you! I taught my daughter all of these things — and my son too! Now he is a chef (I never expected that) and she is a white water raft guide! They’re both can-do people and would never dream of paying someone to hem something. My daughter even spent sometime in the Alaskan wilderness with a chainsaw felling trees and actually participating in the building of log cabins. Yay for self reliability!