Chinese tiger mums start a college-town housing boom

I don’t think it’s about cooking for the kids. It’s more to keep a watchful eye on them. Many of these kids grow up with army of maids around them. Their lack of everyday life skills is beyond comprehension to most folks here.

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These kids don’t even know how to make a cup of coffee.

Yeah that’s true. I have a friend who comes from this kind of background, and when he goes home now and has his friends over, he likes to cook for them. His mom gets upset because that’s what the maids are for.

I have a high school friend who is very successful living in Asia. Has maids to take care of everything for his family. He himself probably never used a can opener in his life. I don’t think he looks back negatively on his pampered life as a youngster by his parents. Money talks, the rest walks…

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It depends on the plastic bag and rarely is it cooked at high temperature and typically around 140 degrees. Sous vide is long slow cooking.

We use a vac sealer and use bags designed for boiling. Some people use zip lock bags but zip lock says no to using their bags that way. However Boy Scouts use the zip lock bags to make omlettes for breakfast in boiling water and I’ve not heard of a Boy Scout being damaged by eggs cooked in a baggie.

Sous vide is becoming mainstream. We’ve had one for many years before they came with clips to attach to pots.

Crock pots have been used for years by working moms to have dinner ready when they get home. Sous-vide just ups the ante by giving you excellent precision over what you’re doing.

For us, one of the big reasons for getting a sousvide was that I was getting a meat CSA, so I was getting the slow-cook cuts that no one buys anymore because they take too long to cook. But I’ve found it useful for a lot more.

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I learned to make my Bisquick in high school. Gunn high. Wonder if they still think Home Economics courses are important over there. .Not everyone will grow up to be a Silicon Valley b’jillionairre.

Acre I went through school when home ec was required for all girls. Many schools have cooking classes but home ec is a thing of the past.

Many middle/high school students think what they have to learn is not relevant. I was one of them. Home Ec in retrospect has been one of the most practical classes I’ve taken. I knew I was going to have a career and wouldn’t need any of that home ec stuff. I have no idea who I thought was going to cook, iron and clean for me while I focused on my career.

Home Ec taught me:
-That a meal could be prepared out of few ingredients
-how to build a bookcase with cinder blocks and wood planks
-how to iron especially shirts and pleats
-how to budget
-creating a financial plan
-eating well on a low budget
-how to rent a Uhaul truck and drive it (I failed the driving)
-how to rent an apartment
-how to research
-how to sew/create clothing
-how to darn socks (socks today are not worthy of darning)
-and much more

My bro-in law, a surgeon, warned us a long time ago to not cook directly with plastic bags or containers.

I agree, but what temperature is “cooking?” Is defrosting ok? Going from fridge to room temperature? From room temperature to 100 degrees? 100 to 120? 120 to 140?

Really plastic isn’t safe at all at any temperature, because it can still leach. So once you’ve bought your food in plastic (think about it the next time you go shopping–what didn’t you buy that was packed in plastic?), stored your food in plastic, packed your lunch in plastic, it’s become a question not of exposure, but what level of exposure, and what kind. Do you drink coke from a plastic bottle, get spaghetti sauce or salad dressings from a plastic bottle? What are those acids doing to the bottle? Those are liquids, so unlike, say, trying to rinse a piece of meat that was sous-vided in a plastic bag, you can’t get the contamination out.

BUT as I said before–if you want you can still use a sousvide with metal or glass bowls and it works perfectly fine! So if you’re concerned, just do that instead. it’s a little harder to say, cook frozen meat, because you have to thaw it enough to get the plastic off, but still will work if you add some liquid in the bowl.

I never had a home-ec class. They weren’t offered at our school. I don’t think knowing how to darn a sock is useful (even though I’ve fixed a lot of clothes, at this point, I toss socks with holes into the rag pile, and use iron on patch pieces for shirts with holes).

I do think though, that anything have to do with money should be taught.

  • Opening a bank account
  • Quicken or other budgeting software
  • Filing taxes
  • Keeping ones SSN private
  • how to buy (and not to buy) stocks
  • renting a house
  • buying a house
  • how to save for a house and saving in general
  • retirement and why to save as early as possible
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That should be mandatory for boys and girls alike. Particularly boys I think. They need more help.

Sometimes the women run the household finances. Either way, anyone who will be able to legally own a credit card and spend money at some point needs to have a finances class. So if you have a pulse, take a finance class.

My kids learned that in regular economics senior year in high school. They opted not to take the AP version that did not include practical things.

I’ve often thought that between quarters or semesters in high school there should be a day or two of seminars to choose from that include items on Terri’s list plus filling out a job application, letters of recommendation, interviewing and some fun stuff like building rockets. It would offer a buffer while teachers do grades and people from the community can come in to offer their expertise. In the spring they could hold a job fair for students.

I got a call from one of the interns asking how to change the temperature on the thermostat. She didn’t know what the buttons meant. And she is in grad school. Too smart and never had to deal with real stuff.

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