I know lots of households where the male is the chief cook/head chef :-)) It's not necessarily a case where the wife/female can't cook but more of a case where the guy really enjoys cooking and so takes over the primary kitchen duties. My nephew is the head cook in his family and my brother and SIL pretty much share in cooking duties although he is not a baker! He taught me Thai cooking.

My ex could bake like a dream - even sold the cakes and tortes he made - but was not a great cook otherwise. New wife can't boil water so now he calls me for favorite recipes.........or they eat out :-)

If you watch cooking shows and go "Why the ---- would you fool with that?" or just leave the room, you are not a cook. If you watch "Beat Bobby Flay" and say that looks good, what do I have and go make something close, you are a cook. If you hit it in the middle, you cook because you have to, not because you love it.

I agree with adellabedella, everyone should have a few basics, so you are not dependent on fast food. (Unless you live in an area like Manhattan!) If I could get something other than pizza and cheap Chinese delivered, I would cook a lot less!

I would love to know how they have got away with this.

Seriously? Your thinking needs a serious update. Other women could also shake up your ancient thinking by having the larger income; and men that have a job that is done from home and he is with the children during the day. How can you be unaware of such widely accepted role changes?

My husband loves to cook and he's very creative as well. I also am a good cook and enjoy cooking (especially since retiring). We often cook our meals together and there are also nights when he does the cooking solo and vice versa.

When I was working, he did most of the cooking because he was home during the day while I was at work. All of his work was out of town, so when he was home between jobs, he took over a lot of the household tasks.

While watching shows like House Hunters on HGTV it surprises me how many of the men talk about their wants in the kitchens because they do the cooking. I think it's great.

It is very common for Cajun men to be great cooks as well as the women.

My dad had his special dishes which were awesome but day to day it was usually mom cooking and she was a great cook. I learned by being in the kitchen helping and watching.

My husband is very good at using the smoker and the grill. He has done competition smoking meats. Incredible food. But he does not cook much in the kitchen. He has been doing more recently to help me out and is doing really well when he takes on a challenge.

I think he would be very good he just needs to get more comfortable and confident in the role. He has always been intrigued and impressed by all the men in my family that are such great cooks. The new and improved kitchen has both of us enjoying our cooking time together so much now.

It's part of the Cajun heritage. My niece's husband makes one of the best seafood Gumbos we have ever had. I make a darn good one but he beats me. However the Gumbo I made last night was excellent lol.

I see it a lot on the TV shows, women acting so proud that they don't know how to cook. I personally don't get it why would you be so proud of that. I think being proud that both of you cook is a better choice. But that's just me.

I used to love to cook and still do but not as much fun cooking for one person. My late husband liked to make chili and assorted soups and stews but nothing fancy and that was fine as he did a good job on those things, and it was so nice to come home from shopping and hungry in winter and walk in to those aromas! His mother ( a good cook ) made sure her sons knew basic cooking and had cleaning skills.

gry_falcon, You don't live where I and the OP live. She is serious. I am also. My Dad was very unusual. My son is unusual. I tried to show both sons simple things and they both can cook. One loves it and one can do just enough to get by. In my husbands family, the men don't cook. They don't cook, because their Dad didn't cook. He didn't cook because his Dad didn't cook. This goes on back as far as you care to go. The men worked outside the home or in the fields. The women did the house, the kitchen garden and cooked. On my father's side, they lived on a farm. She cooked a huge breakfast for the ten kids, her and her husband, and any farm hands. That was at sun up, then she did it again for dinner (at noon), and again at dusk for supper. As the kids got older, the boys helped in the fields and the girls helped in the house.

Yes, it is changing, but if the boy has never been showed how to even scramble an egg, he most likely won't cook. When I was in high school in the late 60's, only girls took Home Ec. Boys or men DID NOT cook. They took shop and girls took home ec. When my sons were in jr high in the 80's, both boys and girls took shop and something like home ec, but it had a different name.

I've never been a cook, don't like anything about it. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't like to cook either. Since he works longer hours than I did, and I'm retired now while he is still working, I'm the one who ends up doing the dreaded task of cooking. If he was a good cook and had more time, I'd be more than happy to have him do the cooking.

Thirty years ago when my husband worked and I had two small kids, if I didn't cook we wouldn't have eaten, as going out to eat was not in our budget. Change thirty years to forty and you describe me. There is no way I could of found a job making what he did, so he could of stayed home and I worked outside the house.

Maxmom, you could have spoken for me LOL. I also do not enjoy cooking although I do a well enough job. My cooking is well prepared, and well presented. Some of this came about from trial and error haha. When my adult boys were growing up my DH liked to make his sloppy Joes, this is the only thing he cooked. My sons would cringe and pretend sick so they could get out of eating them. Dh would not drain the fat off of the hamburger after cooking it so if it was a higher fat content burger it had an inch of fat on top of the sloppy joe ...disgusting. I told him that needs drained and rinsed in hot water his response was **that's what makes it good* my adult boys won't go near sloppy joe as adults. I make them myself now and the grands love them.

There are men like my eldest son that enjoy cooking and do it above and beyond well. IMO everyone should know how to cook at least the basics.

I know people that neither partner cooks, they give the 3 kids cold cereal everyday for breakfast and eat fast food for dinner daily saying its cheaper than cooking. I disagree and it sure isn't healthy for those kids.

Growing up -- the men manned the BBQ while the wives did the cooking but grown up, I find there are lots of women who never set foot in a kitchen -- some have husbands who cook (out of necessity?) while others don't and they eat out 3/7. I even have one acquaintance who tore out her kitchen (because she was going to remodel but hey, that's 14 years ago) to make sure that she doesn't cook. We live in a little town (and believe me the few times I've had to eat out for a week (when we got new countertops, when we got the floors redone) I was so happy to get back in my kitchen) and choices are limited to fast food, some greasy local hamburger places, a diner, a couple of bars and Chinese and Mexican. Fourteen years of that would get tiring!

I have other friends whose husbands cook most of the time (but not all the time) and they make wonderful meals -- not just grilled meals but other things.

My DD and her husband both cook. But it's not divided 50/50 -- she does most but he does make dinners sometimes and if he is off work, he always has dinner ready for her.

At my house, it's me! DH doesn't cook except to warm something up in the microwave if I'm gone for lunch or dinner. When I had my knees done, it was cute watching him fix meals (which for the most part was cooked food brought by people). He would go to the kitchen I would hear the fridge door open and then silence. He then would come back in the living room "what do you want to eat" he'd ask. "whatever" I'd say, "it doesn't matter" and off he'd go to the kitchen and the fridge door would open and then silence. And back he'd come with "why don't you just tell me what you want". So I gathered "whatever" wasn't an option and I would name something and he'd microwave it and bring it to the breakfast room table where we ate.

*I do think that when we find a mate if we're a cook, we find one that doesn't care and if we're not, then we find one who can! So no one starves!

"Women who don't cook?" Why be narrow, how about "people who don't cook?" Anyone who wants to eat should be able to prepare what they want to eat.

I don't think it has anything to do with ethnic traditions, I think it has to do with parenting and what kids are taught. My father didn't cook at all (very traditional Greatest Generation type) but my mother and grandmother taught me to cook, and I'm not talking about using cookie forms to press out different shapes. As a result, I enjoy cooking and am pretty good at it. My style is sometimes too involved for daily fare. My wife is faster, and handles the chore when quick and good is okay and more practical. We both enjoy cooking and experimenting with new things.

And yes, for whatever reason, grills and BBQs tend to be a more a male domain. I'm not sure why, cooking is cooking. Know-how and techniques used outdoors are also used indoors and vice versa.

(PS - all my kids, sons and daughers, cook well)

Raven, my former boss was very proud that she didn't know how to turn on the stove or oven in her home and regularly made sure we all knew it!

It's interesting that you write this because lately I have met many women who tell me that they don't cook. My mother cooked once in a while when she wasn't working and my father cooked soups and manned the BBQ. I enjoy cooking and cook well. The house we bought has a huge kitchen, my husband said that when he saw my face upon entering the kitchen he knew we were buying it. My husband handles the BBQ, but I do all of the other cooking and household chores. He fixes things though. I stay at home and enjoy all of the household chores and cooking.

Both my sons enjoy cooking, even though I never have. Again, I think they just assumed I did. When my husband and I divorced when the boys were preadolescents and I didn't get home from work till dinnertime I put one or the other in charge of making dinner - whatever they wanted to make. We had a lot of what was dubbed Dumb Casserole. I think all that experimentation may have led to their enjoyment of cooking all types of foods. They are both excellent cooks.

You don't live where I and the OP live.

Meaning what? That hunks of the country are determined to never evolve their thinking beyond traditional roles from 40 years ago? I shake my head because I would not marry a man with that type of thinking, even then. In fact, in high school I broke up with a great guy, with a very promising future, just because he admitted he thought a woman should be a virgin on the wedding day, but not so for the man. I am an equal partner in my marriage; we work together to determine who is primarily responsible for which tasks, and there is sufficient fluidity that there is plenty of overlap. He sometimes does the cooking after I've spent the day digging ditches. lol

Why embrace the mentality that because one was not raised with basic skills for something, that they shouldn't/cannot learn? I continue to learn how to do new tasks all the time! Yeah, sure my husband can fix the drywall hole. But I want to at least know the basics of the products and how to do it, too.

I'm single, always been single, don't like to cook, and have somehow thrived all these years. I go for very simple meals that take all of 10-15 minutes to put together, and I eat very well indeed. If I do need to cook for a party or something, I don't find it difficult to follow recipes and things turn out well.

I'm just not a "foodie" like some people are, so food as an art or creative skill doesn't particularly interest me.

I think there is a whole generation being raised who aren't going to know how to cook. With single parents or both parents working, long commutes, the availability of fast food and already prepared fare at supermarkets or places like Trader Joe's, I see fewer and fewer families who prepare their meals at home, even on the weekends.

My husband was taught to cook by his mother; she worked full time in the 50's and 60's, as did his dad, but cooking was seen as more the responsibility of the woman (dad grilled was all). He had a sister, but she was younger, and an older brother, but he was more social and busy than my husband, so not home as much. He learned to cook and she paid him to iron and also to bake for the family (cookies mostly). He made good meals, but I did most of the cooking just because my tastes had evolved beyond the meat and potatoes type meals he cooked. We would have had meat, potatoes and green beans every meal if up to him. One of the things I miss most about his cooking, though, was he could make a perfect fried egg...just how I like them. I'm too impatient and always either turn too soon, or cook to long on one side, or whatever. Not as good as his.

Gyr_falcon, you completely missed my entire point of my post. IF anyone male or female is not taught the basics of ANYTHING, they MOST of the time will not think they can do it. Yes, some break out of the mold. My Dad did. Most do not.

If you have never done anything, except rip a box and place in the microwave, how would you approach a recipe? Why do you think the mail order meal companies are doing so well? They teach cooking and provide the ingredients needed.

Most just rely on fast food.

ETA: Don't pull feminist on me. My generation is the reason you have a choice. My Dad's generation is the reason women can vote.

I eat to live. I cook because we have to eat and neither of us wants to eat out often. I don't cook anything that takes significantly longer to make than it does to eat. I made that resolution late one night while standing with my hands in dishwater after hosting a party. As you can guess, I can't comprehend the interest in TV programs about cooking. That's as compelling to me as watching someone fold laundry. (Sorry, mamapinky.)

My grandmother's family barely had anything TO eat. My mother could put on a dinner, but was a career woman (by choice and out of necessity). My DH's mother had 'help' all her married life. DH was unable to do anything domestic when we married -- and he was resentful about it as a young man. Our DIL's family loves to eat, and our DS has learned to cook quite well. He's also been SAH parent sometimes to enable both kids to have a parent at home until they started school.

A young couple we met at our first apartment had an agreement when they bought a house. "He's Mr. Outside, and I'm Mrs. Inside," said the wife. She had already made it clear that, "From the cleaners...I'm not." (The things I remember!)

I just read that the amount of money spent in restaurants and bars has now surpassed the dollars spent for groceries -- I think that's a first for the US. Gosh, how do people afford that? (And what are they *eating*?)

Sherry, how did I "...completely missed my entire point of my post."? Doesn't what I wrote "Why embrace the mentality that because one was not raised with basic skills for something, that they shouldn't/cannot learn?" address that point? Intellectual laziness is a poor excuse. Resources have been available to learn how to do unfamiliar skills for a long time. Books? TV? Neighbors, family and friends?

[ETA Ref text: Don't pull feminist on me. My generation is the reason you have a choice.]

I'm curious, what the heck generation do you assume I am from???

Growing up it always irritated me that my dad didn't cook. My mom was a stay at home mom so I get that that was her "role" but there really is no reason for her to be the only one cooking.

She insisted that both my brother and I learn how to cook. Every Monday, he made dinner. Every Wednesday, I did. We had to have a full meal planned and have the items we would need written on the grocery list.

She also insisted that we both learn how to sew by hand, just basic things like sewing on a button or stitching up a seam that has come loose. Balancing a checkbook, making a bed, doing laundry, cleaning the house, etc all things she required us to learn. As a result, when I moved out at 18 and got my own place with a friend of mine, I was appalled at the fact that she didn't know how to do any of it.

She had never managed money, she couldn't boil water, she had no concept of cleaning, I had to teach her the basic life skills her parents never taught her. She still doesn't cook very well but at least she can feed herself now without relying on pre-packaged stuff.

I know a lot of women who do not work outside the home but still don't cook. My DS was married to one - he did all the shopping and cooked on the weekend so she had something to feed the children. I wonder what they do now that they are divorced...

I do all the cooking but I only cook dinner. If DH wants to eat breakfast and lunch he's on his own and he does take care of it. Cereal for breakfast and sometimes eggs and tuna or salmon sandwich for lunch with an apple.

The partner of my youngest son doesn't cook but my son does and seems to enjoy it. Every once in a while he comes home looking for leftovers for the two of them and sometimes I get a phone call looking for a long-ago favourite recipe.

I am the only one in the family whose DH doesn't cook. He just doesn't have that much interest in food. He does all other forms of household chores but the kitchen is my domain.

When I was growing up my mother cooked daily meals, including making me a hot lunch in elementary school, and my father cooked on weekends. He also did most of the holiday cooking. It was something he very much enjoyed.

DS has loved cooking since he was quite young. He does most of the cooking in his household. He used to do all the cooking and his wife would do all the baking. Now their schedules are tighter so they cook together more.

DSIL and DD share the cooking and all household chores. Whoever has the energy left is the one who does things. I think he edges out DD in the housecleaning skills. He's a better organizer.

Back in the day there were fewer options for those who didn't want or like to cook. Today it is easy to pick up or have food delivered that is ready to eat or heat. Eating out is also no longer for special occasions. With working couples and and some who commute several hours there is no real time to cook daily meals like people used to when one stayed at home full time. A lot of people have 14 hour or longer work days when you add the commute time in.

I have to wonder if the people who eat out more than they eat at home are the same people with no savings.

My DH learned how to cook when he was in high school. His mother worked nights so it was left up to the kids and because his father refused. He reasoned if you can read, you can follow a recipe. Also his mother didn't like to cook, resented it so everything came out burnt and overcooked. He said you could use her pork chops in place of a hammer, they were so hard.

He's not a gourmet cook, like I try to be, but he can do the basics like spaghetti and (frozen) meatballs, hamburgers and fries, dinner sausage and noodles, and premade ravioli. And there is always Costco chicken and their potato or macaroni salad. Though for the last 40 years I have been the main cook, he knows enough so they won't starve if I am away. And I must admit he has been doing more in the kitchen since he retired.

We tend to make everything we can from scratch because we're not fans of fast food or a lot of the meal in a box stuff in the stores. I used to love to cook but in recent years, not so much; so we tend to eat light and easy more often than not.

Shortly after my husband and I were married, he told me some really gross stories about his cooking skills. That's when I started asking him to help me with this or that in the kitchen (so he could slowly and unwittingly learn). Now, we cook together out of habit. It's so nice that he can make a soup he wants for his lunches while I put dinner together, or to be able to call from the road and say hey, can you start this or that for me to help speed things up.

I think with most households requiring double incomes these days, a lot of people who can cook may have so many demands on their time that fast fooding it is just easier.

And I do have to agree with Chisue, I would tend to think that those who do spend a lot of money to eat out all the time, most likely don't have much in the way of savings.

I don't cook. I'm the main breadwinner. I do most of the household chores.

DH cooks, pays the bills, and takes out the trash when I remind him about the overflowing garbage can.

If I weren't married, I would be fine with pizza, spaghetti, or a salad every day. I hate cooking. HATE IT.

I don't enjoy cooking on a day to day basis but my husband doesn't mind. The tradeoff is that I clean up the kitchen after he cooks and that could actually be the bigger task.

I enjoy cooking but it's boring cooking every day. Where we live, we could go out twice a day, 7 days/wk, 365 days/yr, and never hit the same restaurant within a 30 mile radius for maybe.....10 yrs or so.

When we lived in San Francisco, as DINKs (Double Income No Kids) we could walk out the front door and pick from 27 different cuisines within a mile. We ate out 4-5x/wk.

Now that we're retired I have more time to cook, but I still prefer to go out. We average 3-5x/wk. DH knows how to cook, back in the '80's he went through the local Hotel & Restaurant program which was rated third in the U.S. But alas, he only got a B+ on chopping onions (seriously; I had piles of onions to cook up after he was done practicing!).

All my immediate family love to cook. Every family get-together is a massive gourmet potluck where we debate what to make and then prepare a feast Last time it was cioppino. It's usually at my nephew's house because he's got the most recently remodeled kitchen, with the Bluestar range and almost enough counterspace for five cooks to work together.

I learned about the Bluestar ranges from this forum and turned him on to them. Due to his job he's moved across country and back again, and every time he's bought a house he remodels the kitchen and puts in another Bluestar. He loves to use that range (it's his third, I think). His wife cooks only Taiwanese food or simple American dishes; she isn't into it as much as the rest of us.

It's not such a sexist world any more. When I went to school, home ec was mandatory from grades 7 through 9. Girls learned to cook and sew. Boys in those same grades took shop classes. Today, girls can take shop. Boys can learn to sew and cook. It's optional, not mandatory.

Speaking of which, I used to find it very odd when men don't know how to fix a car or the plumbing in the house and the wife does. But now with more and more women taking jobs in the industries usually set aside just for men, I don't see it as odd anymore.

I am from a different time than most. My husband and his brother have never cooked and my husband has never used a barbecue grill. He just would not know how to do anything concerning cooking. Our Dads were the same way. My son does know how to cook and I think everyone should know some basic stuff to survive if they have to. My husband's idea of feeding himself would have been a bowl of cereal poured out of a box and milk poured on it or ice cream and a box of cookies. My husband would never help out with housework of course now he has to really depend on me for everything. So that is not going to change, he is not going to get better.

Sue in Central Indiana

I work with a woman who works full time. Her husband is now retired. I asked her if when she goes home after working 8 hours if her dinner is ready. She laughed and said, "oh no! He never cooks!" So I asked if he at least has the house done for her: laundry, dishes, bed made, etc.. She again laughed. NO! He does nothing. Nada. Ziltch. It's been that way since they married. They have 2 grown sons. One of them finally left home a few months ago (he's in his mid 30's). He did nothing as well. She was basically what I would call their 'servant'. And now she is still her husbands servant. While he is 100% retired and has all day to help her out with things around the house while she's at work, he does nothing. Sorry, but that's sooo wrong in my books.

My husband has been home 4 1/2 years. He can't work due to a work related injury. But he still manages to put dirty clothes in the washer and dryer and he can wash the dishes (which have to be done by hand now as my dishwasher bit the dust a few weeks ago). He doesn't do a lot, but he puts in some effort. I don't get men who won't help at all, especially if the wife works outside of the home. If you both work, you both help. If one of you is a stay at home partner, you should be doing more around the house.

just my nickels worth. (we don't have pennies anymore, so I cant' say 2 cents.... )

I learned to cook when I got tired of being hungry. I still have trouble when it comes to the quantity prepared - most times there's not only enough for one meal but three or so days worth of leftovers for lunch. :P I guess it works out that both the mister and I like leftovers and aren't really picky if we eat the same thing for days on end - it's food and most of what I make reheats in the microwave well. I make batches of spaghetti sauce to freeze, same for soup bases - saving time and easy to turn into a complete meal with other items in the pantry/fridge. We split the chores around the house so that I vacuum (I like to!) after he dusts, I sort and start the laundry (except for my underpinnings with underwire - those are too expensive to entrust to anyone who won't handwash and hang dry them and I'm the one who will do that rather than PUT ONE IN THE DRYER *cough*) he puts the laundry away.

Overall we entered a relationship after spending some years as newly adult persons who had to fend for themselves and clean up after ourselves if things were going to get cleaned up at all. Once we figured out which tasks each of us was better at or liked doing more, things sort of fell into place EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE TIME WITH THE DRYER. ;)

I started cooking in Junior High. My mother worked, and gave me very good directions.

I used to enjoy cooking, but after raising my daughter and cooking for two ex-husbands it turned into a chore.

When I retired, I gave up cooking. I had a protein bar for breakfast, ate lunch out, and had yogurt for dinner.

My sister was the cook for 40 years. When her husband sold his business, he decided to cook. She was complaining bitterly to me, that after 40 years she wasn't doing it to suit him. My reply to that , was are you crazy? Get a book, sit down and see whats for dinner. He does 75% of the shopping and almost all of the cooking. She is at the library a few times a week. Joy for all. :)

Techs and repairmen arrive at our house and address my DH. Mistake. I'm the more 'mechanical' of the two of us. I grew up helping my mother do everything a woman and a girl could possibly do to avoid having to pay someone. I learned to think through what was wrong and how it might be fixed. DH grew up with 'help'. He just doesn't 'get it'. OTOH, he has never expected me to iron his underwear -- like his mother's maid did!

If the mister wants his underwear ironed, he'll have to do that himself. :P I might lob a can of spray starch his way just to give him a hard time should he ever decide that particular task is one he wants to undertake. ;)

DH and DSS are great cooks. I'm not bad but I'm moody about it. Love to experiment w/new recipes and learn techniques but if I were told this was my forever job, I'd be less than thrilled.

i think my men were challenged by the notion that cooking was women's work. They wanted to prove otherwise and have succeeded. Thank goodness a few fiascos keep them humble ha.

My husband and I were married about 10 years before he as much as fried an egg. However when we were taking care of my mother and our daughter was little, he cooked quite a bit. Nothing fancy but I am not a fancy cook either. I like to cook and I don't want anyone underfoot when I am in the kitchen. I wouldn't mind if he never cooked, and really, he doesn't anymore. But he is the one who gets up at 3 a.m. and goes to work, 7 days a week for months at a time. I get up whenever I feel like it.....or when I have to feed horses or other animals. I don't mind at all doing the cooking and most of the housework. For me, it is a good trade off.

Talking about the younger folks. My husband's niece has a son that is in college. On his own. He cooks mostly eggs and said anything he cooks he drowns it in Sriracha sauce so that he basically all he tastes. He knows absolutely nothing about vehicles. His grandfather loaned him a suv to use temporarily. He called to tell his grandfather something was wrong with the suv. All he had done was add oil because it told him it was out of oil. OK well good thought unfortunately he put the oil in THE RADIATOR!. He seriously opened up the radiator cap and poured a whole bottle of motor oil into it. I said that is just scary and unfortunately that's the case for many just like him. So it's not just cooking! Lol

Lol - There are things that I know are out of my skill set and are too risky to take a gamble on doing a bit of internet reading and attempting them myself. My childhood best friend killed her first car because she didn't know how often a car needs an oil change so hers went...3 years? Oil? Bone dry when it finally quit, seized up and then everything stopped. Any time she made a turn the car screeched - that I figure was the metal on metal once she'd burnt through the brake pads. Both her and her boyfriend consider microwave meals = cooking, and get fast food a lot.

I do the cooking--unless it's just heating up something in the microwave.

Thats about as bad as someone that doesn't clean.

As a young boy, I always had an interest in things like making bread or the like - never came out good, but I tried. When I got older and knew I would be living on my own for a bit, I realized that I had better learn some basics, because I was going to be cooking for somebody important - me! Then I got some basics from watching the people around me cooking, and thought: this is really not too difficult at all. I was encouraged by listening to a radio program where a famous chef was asked what it takes to be a good chef. I was expecting an answer like years of training; he responded, simply, "Curiosity". Has stuck with me to this day and remains one of my favourite quotes.

I enjoy cooking and am good at it. I like to eat, and I like making what I eat. I'm pretty good at dissecting a recipe, and like simple recipes that taste good and have little patience for finicky, time-wasting things (or have enough faith in my abilities to know that I can adapt accordingly).

To answer the original question about how "they" do it, without being gender specific, I would think (hope?) anyone in a relationship - that would be part of the negotiation that goes into the relationship - you're good at this, I'm good at that...so here's how we can be most efficient with our skills. At least if you have that kind of relationship.

I made it a point to teach my sons how to cook and do laundry. I repeated over and over that they should not expect some nice lady to follow them around their entire lives cleaning up after them and serving them meals. They all can cook and do it well. The wives love it.

My experience is that while more prevalent among the oldsters, I know and know of plenty of millennials of both genders who either don't cook at all or don't cook much.