<p>Once you know how, stick is not hard. For the inexperienced in a hilly area, it is very scary. D had to learn to drive the stick shift truck during her Americorps year working for a land trust. As the new employee, in an area with significant hills, it was an embarrassing torture. She is happy to have the skill now, and I am happy, having switched to a stick shift car. </p>
<p>Working on the skills of other D, and she needs to know if she is to rent a car in Europe, or drive here at home again.</p>
<p>I know how to change oil, can’t imagine taking it on myself at this point. I always changed my own air filters, but gave up on that with the minivan, as it was so inaccessible.</p>
<p>Wow. Don’t learn how to change your oil based on disposal concerns??? Do you learn how to change your own batteries for stuff? Or is it a disposal issue?</p>
<p>Where I live the county hazardous waste disposal site (free to county residents) is open 3 weekdays every week (til 7:30 p.m. one day) and Saturday 2 weeks a month.</p>
<p>You can bring:</p>
<pre><code>Chemical products for home use
Paint and home repair products
Lawn & garden chemicals
Aerosol sprays
Pool chemicals
Craft & hobby supplies
Cleaners & polishes
Batteries of all kinds
Automotive fluids & oil filters
Fluorescent light tubes
Computers and cell phones
</code></pre>
<p>Lamar Hunt (deceased owner of the KC Chiefs) spoke in 2005 at the private boys school where his boys had gone when Lamar’s family dedicated the rebuilt football/track facility (that they had funded) in his name. He said that one of his best memories was cooking the hamburgers and hotdogs in the concession stand at the local Friday night football games. I did that during my son’s high school years. It was a great way to see the kids in their “natural habitat.”</p>
<p>My dad wasn’t much of a car guy, but one of our cars was always manual, so he paid extra to send us to driver’s ed that included manual instruction, how to change a flat and oil. It was money well-spent. When my two older kids took driver’s ed I couldn’t even find a school which offered it. </p>
<p>My son is one of those people who can (and has, almost) build a car from the nuts and bolts on up. He changes his own oil, does his own repairs and has rebuilt at least one engine. It’s his favorite hobby next to doing the same on his boat. My older D and I have never HAD to change a tire or our oil, but I’m glad to know how. My H doesn’t even know the names of most of the car parts…</p>
<p>I think skills that have been mentioned in this thread can be important because we don’t ALL have the money to hire help or live in places that’s even an option. While not everyone will need to know how to fish, in some places that could be a great life skill. In other places, knowing how to change a tire might save you from being stuck in the middle of nowhere at night. In others not knowing how to cook might mean going hungry or eating cold, canned food. I’d rather err on the side of teaching my kids more than they might need to know.</p>
<p>My husband changes the oil on our expedition but not the other cars. It’s a lot cheaper for him to do so than take it in to have it done. He takes the used oil to our local Advance Auto Parts store. They recycle it for free.</p>
<p>Here is a candid assessment of the Harvard “full” meal plan. Harvard assumes that the student will eat approximately 2/3rds of those meals, but as a financial matter it provides a budget for the food services department that it would not have if it was not a mandatory plan.</p>
<p>I think college is a great stepping stone to independence. For the typical student:</p>
<p>Freshman/Sophmore year: You don’t really have to clean (besides your bedroom) and people make your food for you in the cafeteria. But you have to get yourself up and go to class and do homework on your own.</p>
<p>Junior/Senior year: Assuming you move into an apartment you now need to cook and clean. Probably someone else is paying all your bills for you.</p>
<p>After Graduation: Now you need to add on paying your own bills and budgeting to the mix.</p>
<p>Yes, I don’t care to learn to change my car’s oil for several reasons. First, because I would need to buy the safety equipment (proper jack, wheel stops, etc) in order raise my vehicle to crawl on the ground underneath my car. Then I would have to drive the use motor oil to a hazardous waste disposal facility in a neighboring city (unless there are local places who will take it - I have no idea). My car includes free service for 60,000 miles, (not really free, I probably paid for it in advance), and I can’t turn off the “service” light unless I take it in anyway. I don’t see the point in doing it myself.</p>
<p>I did look up how to do it on the internet however. There are youtube video demonstrations of how to change the oil on my make of car. Honestly, it seems ridiculous for me to attempt it, but I can understand how people who are interested in car mechanics might enjoy doing it themselves. </p>
<p>The existence of internet resources buttresses the argument that there is little need to learn to do things in advance of actually needing them. I can access videos of how to change a tire on my cell phone if I am stuck somewhere and need to do it. (I also have a manual in my car). But that is extremely unlikely due to the fact that I am an autoclub member, as is every member of my family.</p>
<p>What is the point of posting a 13-year old news article about Harvard’s meal plans?</p>
<p>Are you suggesting that because Harvard knows students will only eat 2/3 of their meals in the dining hall, that they are actually cooking the rest of the time?</p>
<p>Have you ever been to Cambridge? It is a bustling town, packed with great restaurants for students. I guarantee you that if Harvard students are not eating 21 meals per week at the dining hall, it is not because they are down in the house basement cooking up a 3 course gourmet meal.</p>
<p>Because it mentions the “why” of a mandatory 21 meal plan. It had NOTHING to do with Harvard not valuing cooking as a life skill as some have mentioned.</p>
<p>I think they are sufficiently rare that it’s no longer a needed life-skill, just like my mother didn’t need to learn how to crank the starter on the front of the car like her parents had to. </p>
<p>BTW, my S was interested, but we didn’t have any manual-transmission cars for H to teach him on. I tried all over the greater Chicago area to find a driving school that had manual cars and would give him lessons, and it was hard to find. I think it’s a novelty skill at this point, to be honest.</p>
<p>Like Bay, I have no interest in learning how to change my car’s oil. It’s cheaper for me to take it to Jiffy Lube than it would be to buy the appropriate jack to jack up the car, and it’s not worth my time to track down where to dispose of the oil when the nice folks at JL can do that for me. And I don’t have the ability to turn off the notification that the oil needs changing. Some things are just not worth in-sourcing unless you enjoy them.</p>
<p>Okay, so you’re arguing that because in that article, Harvard didn’t say that it doesn’t value cooking during the college years, means that Harvard does think learning to cook while in college is important?</p>
<p>What?? Now what are you suggesting? That because Harvard wants to provide info on how dining hall food is prepared means they want their students to cook while in college? You are really grasping, here, 07DAD.</p>
<p>No, because you added it after I posted. But now I have, and still, so what? Because Harvard offers a free, online course on cooking tips from top chefs, available to anyone, means that Harvard thinks undergrads should be cooking in college?</p>
<p>I lived with my parents till I was 27 and finished my PhD then got married and moved to CA from NJ but always thought it was well worth to pay a maid service to clean up for me and get a cook to do all the day to day cooking. My hubby and I enjoy cooking together when we throw a party or have guests. My kids are as spoilt as I am and so far are doing just fine. The oldest works and gets maid service to come clean her condo every two weeks. She cooks and eats out. The second is in college and shares room with another so both clean together and last still lives at home as in HS.</p>
<p>I had a lot of chores growing up. I scrubbed the toilet, the shower, mopped floors, vacuumed carpets, cooked simple meals, did dishes, babysat and changed diapers of younger siblings while my mom got her education and later worked. </p>
<p>The minute I could afford it, I began hiring a cleaning service to handle the heavy cleaning. I don’t miss it at all. I expect my kids to pick up after themselves, but I didn’t make them do the amount of chores I had to do. I don’t really feel I failed them in any way. They worked very hard in different ways than I did.</p>
<p>Now that they live in apartments, they are responsible for cleaning their own spaces and bathrooms. I’m sure they figured it out with little problem. Both kids got to college knowing how to do their own laundry and both are great little cooks already. I feel ok with how I set them up for adulthood.</p>
<p>I think the only person in the family who knows how to change the oil is DH, who once worked at a full service gas station. Even he takes it to the shop for that.</p>
<p>My children know how to do laundry and clean and cook. I am grateful for the “team effort” I receive when things get a little too busy around here. However, when preparing to send the first one off to school I was a little more focused on balancing the checkbook, watching her money, watching her health, being able to advocate for herself if necessary, realizing cars need more than gas sometimes. </p>
<p>They all get there somehow. I have one child that listens and pretty much will follow most cautionary advice, and one that listens to the advice then shrugs the shoulders and figures it’ll all work out fine. (hmmm mostly that’s true… yeesh!!)</p>