I never took Home Ec. I think I had to sew in gradeschool, and my mom taught me some stuff. I opted for shop in high school. But I'll never forget the day my sister called from college, curious about how to clean her hardwood floors. My mom's method involved hiring someone. I asked the other editors if they took Home Ec. Anna says: "I did and I don’t remember anything." Jessica claims, "We learned how to bake French bread pizza and use a sewing machine. I had the boxers I made (they were a frog print fabric!) for years afterwards." Intern Margaret explains, "The idea was that we would learn to use a sewing machine, but all the machines were broken and they couldn't afford to fix them, so I hand sewed a stuffed bunny and learned the invaluable skill of pulling stuffed animal fur out of a seam. Shop class was way more awesome. I learned to use a jigsaw." Megan says: "I sewed an ugly sweatshirt that I wore to gym class for years. but I also learned how to sew buttons and stuff like that."

I've written about living alone, about being the CEO, CFO and janitor of your life; of learning to enjoy and thrive on autonomy. And shouldn't that be what Home Ec is all about? Budgeting, balancing a checkbook, making the best of leftovers, getting red wine out of the rug, realizing that you don't need as many lattes and heels as you think you do? "Thrift is a dying art," the Women's Institute believes. But would you be open to learning such a skill? In the past, Home Ec came with the stigma that a woman was expected to learn to be a housewife. But what if there were a revamped course in which women learned to run their lives in a financially responsible way?

Old-Fashioned Home Economics [Times of London]

Of course, that can also be a double-aged sword: "Those with two full-time nannies say that, since each is aware of what the other is doing, there are times when each one feels unfairly burdened with too much work and thinks the other is slacking. "You have to explain, 'You're here looking after the baby and the house, but she bought groceries and went to the post office to send a certified letter for me, and she got the kids to the tailor and playdate,' says Yael. "You wish they could figure it out on their own, but you have to intervene." Perhaps someone should get a team of McKinsey consultants in to optimize these work flows?

In other cases, too many nannies may mean that children don't learn to do things for themselves. "Sometimes nannies do things the child should be doing, like picking up toys," says Stacy Rosenthal, a West Village resident who works in product development.

Or um alternately like the recession could not arrive soon enough.