This. My mom never taught me how to cook, and there were no classes to learn such a skill in my high school. Now, I'm 22 and only just learning the basics. About 7 or so years ago I had only just learned what to boil the water meant when cooking pasta. You actually had to wait for the water to start bubbling. Not just pour the pasta in with the water and put it on high heat to then boil (starting the time from when I poured the pasta mind you). Always wondered why my mac & cheese was harder than my moms... I must've ate so much half cooked pasta. T_T

Honestly, I think parents are doing a huge disservice to their kids if they don't teach them basic cooking skills. I'm not saying to make them a 5 star chef, but so many people are so clueless that they probably couldn't make pancakes if their life depended on it.

Ok except every millennial had or currently has access to the Internet at some point during their childhood / teens and could easily teach themselves how to cook

Its much harder than you imagine to teach yourself to cook without a basic understanding. My mother always assigned tasks for me and my brother and sister while cooking. By age 13 we were doing most of the cooking with her supervising and handling the complex tasks. Now as a 23 yr. old college student living at home I cook every meal in the evenings while my parents are at work.

This. Children just don't automatically know, even if you've cooked around them before. I've taught both of mine the basics and have been teaching my daughter how to make more complex dishes. Tonight she learns butter chicken and curried rice. OP needs to really get her 17 year old ready for the real world, teach the basics of house keeping, cooking, how to change a tire and oil, check the fluids in the car, how to do taxes, how to grocery shop (it's an art form people). The only person to blame for your child being oblivious to basic tasks is yourself.

This isn't a generation specific issue. There were stupid people in every generation and one person being a bit dense does not speak for a whole generation.

The cooling issue is mostly this generation, though. I know lots of people that honestly can't cook something if it doesn't have microwave instructions. People used to have to cook to eat, but now it's possible that a kid could grow up never seeing anything more complex than a grilled cheese or burger cooked.

I'm technically in this kid's generation and I've never met anyone that dumb before. Most of my friends are between 18 and 20 and they're not even close to being this dumb.

The ease of instant and microwaveable make it easier for sure to not know somethings, but to be completely oblivious to eggs needing to be cracked is hard to believe. Makes me wonder if there are those that don't know how to make toast, or a grilled cheese sandwich.

I myself am only 23 and have had guys offer to become gay and marry me over my braised beef and tortellini with marsala wine sauce.