At what age did you learn ...

maryb

My mother had to work full time after my father died and couldn't cook, sew or knit so I learned nothing at home.

She died when I was 16 so I boarded at school and went to live with an older half sister in the holidays who was at university. She taught me to knit but if anything was an even worse cook. So I took over and taught myself.

One of the nuns at school taught me to sew one half term when I couldn't go to my sister's because she was in the middle of her finals. I went into town and bought a pattern and fabric from an old fashioned drapers (they still had a little overhead trolley system which carried little pots to the cashier's cubicle). Then Sister Pauline taught me how to lay out the pattern, cut it out and sew it up. She helped me to fit it and didn't even blink at the fact that it was one of the shortest minidresses she'd ever seen (this was 1970). By the end of half term I had a very wearable dress and I'd caught the sewing bug.

Why the actual needlework lessons I had endured with Sister Laurence from 11 to 14 were so useless is a complete mystery to me

Penny-Pincher!!

I could pluck and gut a duck at age 6.....born on a duck farm...LOL. Killed my 1st duck at about age 8:eek:

Was cleaning as far back as I can remember-we had to keep out room clean and had daily chores. Could basic knit at about 8-9. Cooking meals...I can remember being about 6 or 7 and peeling spuds/veg and stiring stuff on the rayburn. Helped dad in the garden about the same age as he grew all his own veg. Used to help dad and the lads egg collecting on weekends and school holidays, also used to size the eggs by hand at about the same age.

Always wanted to learn patchworking and crocheting etc. Maybe one day.

Mum was always good at budgeting and she worked FT as did Dad. Looking back we were quite spoilt growing up and were lucky enough to have 2 holidays abroad each year. They earned very good money but saved everywhere they could. We went to market each saturday to buy fruit/meat/basics etc and our treat was a hot choc and cake from the market cafe. Everything was made from scratch. Funny, I dont recall going to a supermarket many times at all.

Interesting thread!

PP
xx

FZwanab

Sew - age 8/9 in school and at home, made a skirt with elastic waist. As a teenager did Home Ec. it included sewing a skirt and blouse from patterns and also a pillow case which we embroidered. I haven't used a pattern since unfortunately.

Cook - Watched Mum as a child and picked up as I went along, always one for stirring cake mixes and licking spoons!! Then again in School Home Ec., I did this subject up until I left and made jams, quiches, pastries etc. Also love cookery programmes and picked up a few tips there as well as this site.

Budget- My father is v. o/s and I would get 2p for every brass door knob I polished, same for any silverware - my Dad won cups for vegetable garden competitions. Also went to the girl guides and got my "thrift badge". Budgeting was also covered in our Home Ec. Curriculum (Irish school). I also watched Dad doing his budget every month and writing down every expense he had after coming out of a shop, he kept this in his wallet and would go over it at the end of the month.

Knit - We did this in school about age 9, but I can't remember how it is done.

Patchwork - I'd love to know how to do this, haven't a clue.

Crochet/ Darn - Never learnt, although I might get my Dad to teach me darning as his mum taught him when he was 7.

D.I.Y. - I watched my Dad, but he didn't want me to do this he thought it was only for boys, however, now he is very impressed with the shelving, draining radiators etc. that I can do. ( I knew he would one day). I am very impressed with some here on the board who can really do heavy stuff - tiling bathrooms, laying flooring etc. well done.

Car Maintenance - Have figured out tyre pressure, oil levels and water levels, how to clean my car(from this site), but that is about it. I make sure to always renew my emergency cover, and shop around for best price.

For my own kids - Age 5 sets table, helps me bake - says he wants to hatch the eggs (bless!!), gets pocket money based on setting table and putting toys away and having a good attitude doing it. My 3 yr old helps take the plastic plates out of the dishwasher and dusts (really badly) the t.v. and sweeps the floor ( really really badly!!), My 1 year old just messes everywhere helping me reevaluate my cleaning procedures!!.

LilacLillie

When I got married I couldn't do anything, even basic chores. It came as a terrible shock when the house was in a mess.........................no-one there to clean it up. I truly couldn't believe it was my responsability, still can't to this day!
So my mum used to come round and do my housework and take home our laundry.
One day (about 2yrs later) a delivery man brought a washing machine to my house. We argued, because I hadn't ordered one, he wouldn't take it back because it was paid for and in my name.
My mum said she was fed up with doing mine, so had bought me my own. Then she said I had to do my own work. Of course I thought I couldn't possibly be expected to do it myself. So I went to my GP and said 'I didn't get married to do housework.......and I'm NOT going to do it!' I was dead serious.
He said all he could suggest then was divorce!!!!!!
To this day I hate it (by that I mean really hate, not don't like it, or take it or leave it), yet am very OCD about it. I do what most people do for a yearly spring clean EVERY WEEK!
I'm sure this is because my own mum didn't teach me anything. I remember once back in '74 , a lady in the co-op said to me (as I was buying bacon), 'Oh look. This is better bacon and is on special offer'. I seriously said ' yes but its the wrong shape for my bacon box'.
That just about sums me up back then. I try really hard now but get no pleasure at all doing household chores of any sort. If hubby comes home and Billie Holiday is playing and a bottle of wine is opened......................he keeps well away and doesn't speak to me. He knows I'm doing the housework.
LL

Brightside

Like many other I can't remember when I learnt to do many things.

Sewing I learnt off my gran before I started at school as mum had to work, my gran also taught me how to spot good cattle and sheep at the auctions ( an exciting day out when you are small) and how to pick a good horse and read form at the horse races, which is a more expensive day out with her now I am older.

The rest of my pre-school I seemed to spend in the veg garden with my grandad, probably eating more than I ever helped him grow. Now I have all his tools I try to put them to good use.

Cooking I again learnt off the grandparents, my grandma was a genius at making it up as she went along. A skill she said she learnt off her mum who brought up thirteen children on next to nothing.

Car maintenance I learnt from my dad as I wasn't allowed to take my test till I had completed the course at the local college. He also paid for me to go on a skid control course for my 17th birthday, best present I ever got bought.

Ironing was my favourite chore, as I could stay up late to do all the ironing once a week and watch Miami Vice!

The budgeting probably I learnt with the gambling from my gran, that you only bet what you can afford to lose. Even now she gives all her gambling profits to the Salvation Army at the end of each month.

mossy

Its funny I was just thinking about this this morning. My mum had to do lots of chores around her house (five brothers and sisters not much money expected to work hard and join in with the chores) because of this she swore she would never make my sister or me do any housework. She just left it to us which of course we didn't as we had no idea about it.

So I didn't learn to iron until I moved out of home, I've never been good at cleaning and my house is always a tip even though it kills me for it to be like it. My nana taught me how to knit when I was about 7 I think, sowing was probably in a textiles lesson at school.

One thing I did do is cook, my mum used to make as many home made meals as she could and me and my little sister were always in the kitchen cooking, I still use the sponge recipe I learnt when I was about 7.

Rebob

I learnt how to cook at a young age by helping and trying to avoid my sisters cooking!
My dad taught me to knit when I was 5.
I sewed a pinny on a sewing machine when I was 8.
Learnt to bobbin knit and crochet at 7 and have always helped mum clean doing more over the years as mum worked a lot of hours.
I washed and ironed my clothes from about 12 years.
dad taught me to budget by giving me a set amount of pocket money that had to cover clothes, toiletries, socialising etc from 14 years.

My son (8 years old) can already sew, use a sewing machine, use a drill, weld a neat run with a mig welder, grind, make a cup of tea, turn his grandads merc round on the drive :eek: I am teaching him some basic cooking such as beans on toast and he helps with other things. He even cleaned his bedroom and lifted his storage boxes off the floor ready to vac before he woke me sunday morning! :A

Horasio

Sew on a button - 10 needlework class
Knit - 9 - my mum taught me - find it tedious tho'
Darn - I can't do it - we get new stuff or send it to the dry cleaners who repairs it - very little need for it.
Crochet - 12 - but I don't enjoy it
Cook - self taught at 17 when I got married, but did odd bits from aged 8 at home - baking cakes and helping make roasts. Dad taught me to cook stew and suet pudding.
Clean - Watched parents clean from aged 4, doing the odd bit to help them, cleaned own stuff from aged 12, still learning new tips even now - I'm a perfectionist, yet I hate it and people who make mess and never clean it
Patchwork - I can't do it
Basic budgeting - 17 when I got married but observed parents from age 14
Made own clothes from age 10 and customised existing clothing.
Painting (decorating) aged 11
Learnt a lot in the Brownies and Guides
Applying make up - aged 11
Very basic car maintenance - aged 13
Gardening - aged 14 - self taught at 19 when I got my first house
Ironing - aged 14 but I am not very good at it
Using a washing machine at aged 14 - we didn't have one till then
Hair care - aged 13 - wanted to become a hairdresser

My parents taught me how to run a house but let me off the duties so I could study - they said I would be doing it myself for ever once I left home

Taught my son how to sew a button, clean his room, cook basic meals, ironing, husband teaching him computing, electrical, mechanical and joinery stuff - both are naturals

Philippa36

When we were kids my Mum used to buy cake mixes to keep us quiet during the long summer holidays ~ we would spend hours making different varieties of cakes, puddings and biscuits. We were also given the last bits of pastry to make jam tarts etc. I did the same with my kids and they both love to cook and experiment.

I loved to sew from the age of about 10 and was given a very old sewing machine one year by an elderly aunt, I used it to make dresses for my daughter when she was a toddler. We did have home economics lessons in primary school and everyone made tablemats, embroidered round the edges. I also made pyjamas in secondary school! I've never been taught to crochet/darn, but I was taught to knit, never really figured it out though.

I started gardening when we moved house out to a remote part of North Wales , I wasn't working and had a large garden for the first time ever. I discovered I had relatively green fingers and now wouldn't want to be without some sort of a garden to potter in

My brother used to pay me to iron his shirts and trousers before his dates, when I was in my early teens!

I was never taught to budget and that was the most painful to learn during my 20's

I taught both my kids to cook and clean and I am currently trying to teach my daughter to sew.

HOLsale

i don't knit or crochet, i could never find anyone to teach me and trying to learn from a book was amusingly frustrating at best

i learned to sew by hand at around 10 when my mom started making me sew my own buttons on. we also had these work experience field trips that we could save up good behaviour points for at my school. i chose to go to dressmaker and made my own patchwork pillowcase on the sewing machine, again at age 10

by 10 years old i was making the evening meal a few nights a week, by 12 it was at least 3-4 nights a week as my mom was going back to uni and my stepdad worked til about 8pm each night

at 15-16 i took foods courses at school, sort of home economics courses though only about food... but by then i was already way beyond everyone else in the class accept the teacher, still it was fun and an easy 'A'

at 15 i also took a few semesters of sewing classes at school (i went to a very agricultural based school so they still offered the very traditional subjects that hand long since fallen by the wayside in most schools by the late 80's) i really enjoyed the clothing courses and made my own button down/collared dress shirt, skirt with kickpleat and zip/trousers with zip and peg legs :eek: etc

i even took a typing course at the same school at age 14

all of these things have really helped me in life

as for budgeting! my mother was so bitter about going from a very comfortable upper middle class background to below the poverty line that she fought kicking and screaming all the way against ecomnomising. we got by but she could have done soooo much more and i suffered for it.

so whilst she didn't teach me how to manage money herself, i learned how you would suffer if you didn't... i still have money issues to this day but never let it be said that i'm not good with money, i could squeeze blood out of a stone if i had to to keep my family fed