Death of the Domestic Goddess

Whilst writing the blog post for my chutney and knitting and searching for info on Domestic Goddesses, I came across this article on the Daily Mail website. 

Death of the Domestic Goddess! Baking and sewing skills dying out as modern mothers claim they are too busy to learn - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2114842/Death-Domestic-Goddess-Traditional-baking-sewing-homemaking-skills-dying-new-mothers-busy-learn.html

Image credit: H Armstrong Roberts, Getty

I have for a while now thought that some of the old skills are dying out. For instance I am 31 and at school in Home Economics classes we were only taught to cook. That is fine but learning other domestic skills like sewing and knitting would have actually been quite useful. I am all for equal opportunities and learning new things and it was great to be able to do wood work at school but actually the pencil pot I made is just sitting gathering dust somewhere where as I would have no idea where to start with darning socks but it would be handy to know.

Are these skills dying out for a reason? Well quite frankly yes.  As sad as it is, it is easier and possibly cheaper (especially when you take hourly rate into account) to just go to the shops and buy a new pair of socks than it is to sit and darn them. It goes back to one of my other rants that people go to work to buy stuff so that they can go to work.

In fact I am going to let Tom from The Good Life say it (from series one episode one):

"You know that ‘it’ business I was talking about? I think I’ve defined what 'it' is. It’s breaking the cycle: Going to work to get money to translate into things which you use up which makes you go to work again etc etc; in other words, the norm. What we should be doing is working at the job of life itself!"

The same is true for say jam making. You can go to the supermarket and buy a jar of jam for the same price or less than you can the fruit to make it. That is before you factor other ingredients and time in. In the olden days people made jam and chutney from the stock or surplus they had grown thus making it cheaper or free and very economical and actually a necessary way of preserving your crop. That just isn’t the case anymore so making your own has become a nice hobby or leisure activity rather than a must have or a part of everyday life. 

I can totally emphasise with that though, I mean I am really lucky that I work from home so I am flexible over the hours I work. I can fit nice things into my day because I don’t have to waste two hours a day in a car and an hour for lunch sitting at my desk. I already therefore have three hours to play with that is without working in the evening and using the daylight hours when I am more energised for kneading bread dough. I can make time for chutney making or baking. I used to work full time in an office and had no inclination for pursuits of this sort when I came home. I wanted to do it for the nicety but was just too blooming knackered mentally and physically.

Am I trying to make a point? I guess so but I don’t know what the right answer is. I think you just need to do what is right for you and your circumstances, your budget etc.

You may also want to read "The Good Life Challenege" blog that is written by my friend Nicola. She has a take on this subject too.

http://thegoodlifechallenge.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/make-do-mend/