I am older than most of you, but I came here to ask a question. I want to poll you guys about something.

When my dad was young... he grew up in the depression era, his dad taught him to farm, raise cattle, fix tractors, and even do hernia surgery on baby pigs. He understood about construction, and machinery, and even science and medicine, because his dad taught him.

When I was growing up I got less training from my parents than he did, but I still got a good bit. My mom tried to teach me to cook a little, and to sew, knit and crochet. My dad taught me to work on cars a bit. I learned gun safety and went hunting, and hiking through the woods. I learned about edible plants, and how to find my way around in the woods at least. I learned from him and a couple of boyfriends about basic carpentry, and you know just general maintence.

Recently my nephew who is in his 20's came over to help my husband with some construction. He doesn't even know how to use a power drill. I notice that most people under 30 don't know these basic kinds of things, like how to use a hammer, how to change their own car oil... little stuff that I thought most people just knew... and maybe my generation failed to teach these little details to our kids.... well I do teach my daughters how to do stuff, but most parents don't and a lot of them don't know themselves. My daughter says none of the guys she knows, do mechanic work, or know basic carpentry, not even a little!

I was wondering when you were kids, did you learn things from your parents? Did they take you hunting, and fishing? Did you learn to fix the car by helping Daddy or Mom? Did they show you how to build stuff with wood or metal?

Did they even know how themselves? I mean my generation was pretty hit and miss with what our parents taught us... so maybe they don't know. Did they do home improvement projects? Did you get to help? Did they explain it to you at all? or maybe that wasn't their thing. Did they teach you about business, or their career? I was just wondering about it because I know the future lies in your hands as young people. I hope that if you didn't learn these skills yet, you will seek them out as a matter of survial.

Please tell me what exactly you have learned in life so far as far as skills go, and whether you learned from parents, or neighbors, or at school? Maybe you learned from friends, and that counts too, cause they had to learn that from somewhere.

I am very interested in learning more about how much my generation taught your generation.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Kim

My parents taught me a great deal; they both agreed that I should be prepared for life, and that it should start at a young age.

My mom married at 19 and wanted to make sure that I would be prepared for life when I eventually was on my own. This involved cooking, laundry and little things like writing checks and balancing a check book.

I am the oldest of two girls, no brothers, so I got to spend a lot of time with my dad when I was younger. I now know how to use an ax, cook food on the grill, use tools, that sort of thing.

I taught myself to read, inspired by having my dad read me a picture book every night before bed.

It really all depends on the parents you are dealt...

Thanks FuzionEnt

I am glad that your dad taught you the basics. You say most of your friends don't like getting their hands dirty. I personally admire that you are prepared, and capable. I think it could be vital and you are right it could save your life. You never know what might happen.

I agree that hunting in LA wouldn't be popular or very fruitful. LOL I think that the skills learned in hunting might be useful in some situations, but most of them you'd get by hiking as well. Using a gun might be important in the future... I hope not though. That would only be useful in a very bad situation that I hope the next generation doesn't experience at all.

When I raised my girls I told them when they were young that I didn't know what would happen in the future, and that they needed to be prepared for anything. You never know when some strange situation will crop up, and unless you are prepared...

WE used some of our skills during a week long power failure during an ice storm, and though most of it was common sense, I think unless I had taught them to think for themselves things might have been worse. News report were full of accident reports, and even some fatalities because of people trying to heat their house with a charcoal grill. (they suffocated) Others tried to cut up fallen trees. A guy impaled himself with a chainsaw, and many more saw related injuries also occured. just trying to drive in the ice caused a lot of wrecks, and overall a lot of people hurt themselves trying to survive without electricity.

Today everything is cool, and people don't have to lift a finger to live. It is important to know how to survive no matter what. I don't think the days of needing craftsmen are over, and you can save a lot of money building your own stuff, even in good times.

For Ikki14Reed,

The reason we were wondering, is that we were sort of debating what would happen if in the future mankind faced some disater of unknown origin and nature. We watch a lot of horror and disaster films... everything from Night of the living dead, where they boarded up the house to keep the zombies out, to those disaster films where astroids, tidal waves, global warming, etc. strike the earth, and people in these movies come up with brilliant ideas to survive. We were wondering if ordinary people in the future would be brilliant like that, or if they would be lost without a fast food drive through, and a microwave, and wonder around aimlessly in shock like Barbara in Night of the Living Dead. Instead of screaming "We have to look for Johnny, they'd be screaming cause they were cold and hungry. I was just wondering how people today would cope with massive power outages, or not being able to call a mechanic if their car broke down... or would they be able to rig generators from their cars, to run their computer long enough to solve the problem using the internet. Would they collapse in the heat without their air conditioners...or freeze to death in the cold, or could they make it. Would they even try?

With the older people getting older, and the young ones our future, we might not have what has always been common knowledge in the general population. I really didn't think about it till the last few years, but it is becoming a sort of creeping concern that the world might be lost due to the fact no one is prepared for the worse case senerio. I was kind of worried what we might be in for, if things don't continue on the same path they are now. If disaster strikes this country what then? Also I would hate for the old skills of carpentry and simple construction, to be only known by a few people in China, who now work for 5 cents an hour.

Anyway we were just kind of curious, and also I thought mentioning it might encourage people to be more interested in finding out how to do things. It is something to think about.

hey well im 26 years old and well i can preatty much do all the stuff that you were talking about exept for the whole hunting part, ive never been hunting but i live in L.A CA. so that might explain why, here in cali most people dont bother learning anything that might get ur hands dirty, i think its a great idea to teach people the basics in life that might either save u money or even save ur life. my dad tought me alot of things but alot i learned it by myself by trial and error. well hope u can teach ur kids all things that are needed in life. but it might be more effficient if they learn the things that they might actually use now a days. hunting is fun but for some people its cruel, and to honest thats a thing of the past i have 0 friends who have ever gone hunting. and now they have gps systems so incase u get lost. i think times have changed so useful skill back in the days are not the same now adays.

May I ask why, exactly, you want to know?