Ivy says:
I saw this post earlier today, and while the original poster was actually talking about something different than the rest of us thought, it did make me think. (It’s a dangerous pastime, I know)
Anybody ever read Dicey’s Song? When I was younger, I strongly identified with her hatred of Home Ec. My Home Ec class was completely useless, we learned to make croutons and I made a horrible pink sweatshirt that fell apart in no time.
Cue me about 5 years later attempting to run a household. I attempted to fry chicken and turned it black on the outside while it was still raw on the inside. I couldn’t figure out how to pay bills on time to save my life. I overspent on groceries and then starved at the end of the week. I threw away awesome shoes because I didn’t know how to repair them.
Yes, Home Ec was important. But my Home Ec classes didn’t teach the sort of thing I needed to know anyway, and my mom was too busy working to teach me much- not that I would have listened to her anyway.
Home Economics reduces your global footprint. When you can sew a button on a shirt instead of throwing it away, that’s Home Economics. When you can cook from scratch, you’re reducing packaging. When you can effectively budget, you’re not wasting money.
It’s important, and this site is both for all of you who grew up like me, uneducated in the ways of effectively running a household; and it’s for those of you seasoned pros who have great tips to add in the comments, and could pick up a new trick or two. It’s for women, it’s for men- young people and old people. It’s for the conservative Christian homeschooling moms and the childfree vegan godless hippies. Everyone can learn here, everyone can benefit. And all are welcome, even those who think this sort of stuff is not important, because they’ll learn. Oh, they’ll learn.
ETA: Blogarita and I were on the same wavelength, she wrote a great post about darn near the same thing. It’s great companion reading to this post, so go check it out.
