Old Style Skills

Jo138

I'm maybe just a cynic. It's not in multi-nationals interests to have us know about making things for ourselves. They generate a enormous income by exploiting cheap labour to make things, then sell to people with massively inflated prices, way over and above the cost of labour & materials.

I've offerred to teach many people, young and older, and no-one seems to want to know - they'd MUCH rather I made them things for them for free! 'Tis the society we live in, sadly.

newlywed

I agree. When I was younger mum used to make nearly all our dresses and skirts etc. The material worked out much cheaper than the cost of buying the item. I was taught to knit at a young age and knitted a jumper for myself aged about 10. When I was 16/17 and working the cost of buying the wool was much less than shops like Next etc were charging for jumpers and the lower range shops didn't have such a selection with regard to fashion.

But the price of things has changed dramatically and it can often cost more for the material/wool than it would from buying the made up item from a cheaper priced high street shop.

Although I agree children should all be taught to cook for themselves, even if it's only basic food! Not to mention clean up after themselves and do basic laundry.

No good bringing up children who would never cope if they lived on their own. They need basic life skills. My parents taught me well, knitting, sewing, crafts, washing, ironing, cooking, sanding down furniture and re-finishing, attaching new handles to doors etc.

I don't use them all due to time limits (working full time, newly married etc etc) but I know that if anything happened to my family, I could still survive.

Lillibet_2

I grew up with both my parents & my grandad in the same house, Mum & Granddad where chefs by trade & I learnt how to cook at their elbows (just about where I came too stood on a stool at the kitchen counter:o). My Dad was DIY bonkers & my granddads big hobby was enginerring so between them I can strip & hang wall paper, paint, hang a door, sand & re-furbish furniture, bleed a radiator, change a plug, re-wire a lamp, change a washer (if I can find a big strong man to turn the stop !!!! off first:o), knock out a fireplace, lay bricks (I laid the foundations for our conservatory 3 years ago:D), put up shelves, check my own oil/water/tyre preassure & top up all as necessary (although hubby thinks I can't do the tyres...such a dirty job:p), I have rasied household budgeting to an art form . But whilst learing all this I omitted learning how to sew apart from buttons (thank God for Wonder web!), I only learnt how to knit this year, I take terrible photographs & can't type or spell for tofefe:rolleyes:
Hubby on the other hand learnt how to knit as a child & often helps me out, he too can do household decorating (comming from a family of decorators) but other DIY is ailen to him & I'm not sure he knows where the kitchen is?! He can, however, recognize a bird call at 50 paces & identify a animal by a glance at it's droppings (:eek:) not that these are much to do with OS unless you want to know which speices of newt is living in your pond:p.
But these are all skills our parents have taught us & we will try our best to pass them all onto our son when he is older. What's the betting he is totally dis-interested in it all & will be busy taking the PC apart to see how it works?:rotfl:At the end of the day he will only take on board what he wants, but we can let him see us doing these things as the norm for us & hope!

Aril

I think it also depends on what you term craft. My son is keen to learn to cook [he sees both his parents cooking and is used to and by and large prefers HM meals] and OH is just as good at housework as myself. I used to most of it because OH worked full time and I was part time and SAHM but now that has reversed we've tweaked the roles again. Small person is keen to have a crack at cooking which I encourage. He has also just learnt to knit...he didn't let on but has been badgering my Mum and has finally worn her down!! I encourage him to make all sorts of things....however both he and OH would draw the line at cross stitch whereas you rarely see me with a tool in my hand doing any kind of making/repairing thing!!
Aril

Joolzr68

I also think it is extreamly important to teach your kids as many life skills as you possibly can. My children ( boy age 11 and girl age 13) can both follow a recipe and cook loads of stuff. Its fantastic knowing they will be able to fend for themselves when they're older. They actually find themselves giving advice to their class mates in Food Tec lessons at school! They themselves find it amazing that other kids don't know any of the basic kitchen skills. It's a sad state of affairs in my opinion.

My Mum did a great job teaching myself and my brother and sister basic life skills and I fully intend to do the same for my children.

It is a sad fact that people don't seem to have time (or are too lazy) to use any of the old skills from days gone by now. Its all too easy to go out and buy the things we need. Perhaps we don't need these skills anymore but I for one am very glad I can do other things besides veging out infront of the T.V.

When my Mum taught me to sew I really thought at the time why did I need to know, but now that my daughter does ballet danceing and needs new outfits and costumes that you cannot buy for exams, I'm so glad I can sew.(thanks Mum)

I really don't know how kids today will learn any skill if their parents don't teach them. we can only hope that some will feel the need to learn for themselves at some stage in their lives. I'm hopeful that some will or we will soon be living in a very boring world where nobody knows how to do anything anymore!

kscour

I married a man who can hardly cook, can't iron and don't even think of sewing and knitting - all MIL's fault although to her credit she did put him to work in their little market garden from a young age so at least he can grow carrots!:rolleyes:
My mum treated me & my 3 elder brothers all the same when it came to cooking etc. We all learnt to clean, cook, sew & knit - I think really we just all had to muck in and do what needed doing and that's how we learnt. Downside of this is if I have knitting out and a brother visits I'll find when they've left that they have knitted a row perfectly to the pattern except that they've pulled the wool so tight that it's impossible to put a needle in to knit another row:eek: - it wasn't funny when they were 10 and it isn't funny now they're 40!!:rolleyes::D
Funnily enough the things I cherish most is the bits that were taught/passed on to me by my grandparents - there's something soo very special about time spent with grandparents.

Sarahsaver

My dad taught me a lot of OS things. He knew many of them from being in the army in WW2 (he was 55 when I was born in 1970:)) but also from having a not too well off childhood. He told me of catching rabbits and pigeons as a child, and showed me how to produce tactical roadkill long before hugh fearnley-wittingstall got his cooking apron on. I also learnt the value of bartering goods and produce, and 'make-do-and-mend'
He taught me 'waste not want not', taught me to mend bikes, chop wood with an axe at the age of 6 or 7, pluck a pheasant, dig a garden properly, make compost, names of plants and trees, how to grow veg, darn a jumper, fold trousers, polish shoes, play drafts and appreciate old English cider! I'm sure it was him who told me how to iron a shirt and fold jumpers properly.
In the past different tasks for men and women made sense, and I would say it still does today if a woman is a stop at home mum/housewife (hate that word but you know what I mean) then its only fair that she sews on buttons, mends, irons and so on. My OH is out of the house from 7.30 til 5.30, he hasnt got the time to do all that.
I am teaching my kids to cook, clean, sew, knit, dd knows what mushrooms to pick in the wild - she is 9 yrs old.

inkie

My daughter has chosen sewing at school (primary school) ,and she has managed to rope a few of the boys in.

dronid

My mother cooked and cleaned until she divorced my father and then she worked, cooked and cleaned. She is still particular about what she eats and at the time what she fed us. I still remember transferring over from Mothers Pride white, foamy, bland, sliced to wholemeal. It took some getting used to but I ended up preferring it (actually I just got to dislike the white sliced more than the wholemeal!) She could replace buttons, but then so could I. I can patch repair a number of things from holes in fabric to holes in window frames and put up tiling. I learned to cook when she went to work, though I'd always had an interest.

Warning! From this point in I may rant!

I fear that the basics I list here are beyond many people now. Perhaps more worryingly I know more men who can cook than women. I'm really not being sexist here. I knew NO women who could cook at University! Most of my female friends have only learned to cook in the last 3/4 years when they reached 30 and had children and then only because they gave up work at that time and had to. A number of them were put in my 'charge':o at University by their parents who considered me reliable:eek: and now we all look out for each other. I have eventually got a number of them into OS to a greater or lesser extent. Bear in mind we went to University 16 years ago and even then there was all too much pot noodle in the cupboards.

Now we have places like the Wetherspoon pub chain advertising to Students that they can eat there, 3 meals a day for £45 each week!:mad: We are really creating a generation that have to rely on the world to provide and take care of them.:mad: :mad: Frankly I'm waiting for them to provide junk food lunches specifically aimed at the unemployed budget.:mad: :mad: :mad: At least we know if any major world disaster occurs we at least will have a chance of survival compared to the poor bu**ers who will be sitting in the ashes wondering when dinner will arrive!

You can probably tell I feel pretty strongly about this!:D

rainbowrisin

I think it's really important that both sexes learn as many OS skills as possible - they may not always need to use them, but having skills to fall back on is such a bonus in life.
I'm not suggesting we all become super expert in every field, but I think a good command of the basics when it comes to growing food, hunting food, cooking food, basic DIY and mechanics, basic sewing and repairs is a really helpful grounding for whatever life may throw at you.
Having OS skills gives choice, and also self-reliance - I think it also teaches you to respect and care for the things which you have and use, rather than treating them as throw away commodities.
It means you can move in and out of consumer society as you wish, rather than being depedent on others to provide the basics of life.