What I Have in Common with The Queen

I'm watching The Crown on Netflix, which is about young Queen Elizabeth when she ascended to the throne.

There's a flashback scene to when she was a little girl, probably about eleven or twelve. She's being tutored by the vice provost at Eton College. He is teaching her the difference between "the efficient" and "the dignified." The legislature is efficient and the crown is dignified, something along those lines. At one point, she stops the provost and asks if this is what he teaches his other students.

He responds, "No, just you. This is what I teach them." Then, he drops a huge stack of papers on her desk. Exam papers. She pages through. They include complicated math that makes me twitch. She asks, "Shouldn't I know all of this, too?" He's like, "No, ma'am. All very undignified."

Then it returns to "present" day, her grown-up self as queen. Her father had died suddenly, and it's clear she doesn't feel ready. She's young (only 26 or so). She realizes how much she doesn't know about basic stuff. She feels incredibly self-conscious about it. She's sitting with her mother, and her mother is reading the paper. The young queen asks whether she should know more about literature, philosophy, and science. And her mother responds, "Why?" And Elizabeth explains that she must have a duty to know certain things, to which her mother replies that the young queen knows when to keep her mouth shut, which is important for the monarchy.

Flustered, Elizabeth lets it drop, but it continues to bother her, so she asks her personal secretary to find her a tutor.

I've stopped watching at this point, so I don't know if she gets a tutor. But these scenes hit home for me because I believe cooking is something that everyone (male and female alike) should learn how to do as a child.

Now, if you were to ask my mother why I didn't learn to cook as a kid, this would be her answer: "You didn't want to."

I debate that. I don't think it's true. Her memory is very different from mine. (And I did do some cooking, baking mostly because that's what kids do; and when I moved back home for a stretch in my late 20s, I did some cooking, all of which I've blocked out for reasons I'll explain later.)

But regardless, here's the thing. As the parent, you're the adult. It's your responsibility to teach your child to learn how to do certain things whether they want to know it or not. You say, "I don't care if you want to learn. You're going to learn because it's my job to teach you these important skills that you'll need as an adult." So, I do feel the onus is on her a bit there. 

All that said, just as the young queen decided she should learn these things, I've decided the same. I'm going to conquer the cooking beast. Of course, I don't expect to become a gourmet chef (nor do I have any desire). I'm not ashamed of beginning all my recipe searches in Google with the word "easy" (e.g. "easy chicken dinners," "easy stir fry"). But I'm hoping I can eventually "hold my own," as it were (and as the young queen expressed in The Crown). 

Time will tell. But at least I'm making the effort.