Hang on to your petticoat, it seems women are losing our mastery of traditional female skills like skirt hemming, chook roasting and shirt ironing. Holy domestic disaster, Batman! New research has revealed that most women can’t do the basic things our mothers and grandmothers could (and still can). For example:
Only 51 per cent of women aged under 30 can cook a roast compared with 82 per cent of baby boomers.
Baking lamingtons is a dying art with 20 per cent of Gen Y capable of whipping up the Aussie classic, down from 45 per cent for previous generations.
Only 23 per cent can grow a plant from a cutting when 78 per cent of older women say this is a breeze.
But I have a question: is it that we CAN’T do these things or we choose to put our energy elsewhere?
Traditional skills outside the kitchen are falling by the wayside with Gen Y women woefully behind their older counterparts, the study by McCrindle Research found. Social researcher Mark McCrindle said: “Women of today tend to be busier, juggling more roles, and are quite prepared to compromise a bit of the homemade just to save some time.
“We live in a throw-away culture where, rather than repair something, we will buy a new one, even if it is just a matter of darning holes or sewing on buttons,” Mr McCrindle said.
Does that tally will your experience? Can you do the same things your mother or grandmother did (or, if you’re a guy – your dad and grandfather)?
Or are you one of those new breed of modern domestic goddess who adores nothing more than baking a pie and ironing a shirt JUST SO?
What new skills have you perhaps developed that your parents and grandparents never posessed?
Top Comments
I can't do any of those things listed above. Not without having my mum or sister on stand-by anyway (and I'm 28!). But I /can\ bake some pretty mean cupcakes. Cupcakes are the new lamingtons anyway. ;-)
There is no excuse for not being able to take up a hem whether you are male or female. It all gets down to 'do you want to?'.