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As a 21st century society, women are working more and couples are getting married later in life. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), women are having kids later, with an overall 26% decrease in mothers under 25 and a 12% rise for those aged 30 to 34 as of 2025. With an increase in economic stress for young adults, there is a higher expectation for
people to focus on working to make money. Most students at San Marin High School plan on furthering their education or joining the workforce after graduating, and spend their free time studying and building a professional resume. Because of this, teens are actively losing the skill of cooking.
Traditionally, women were often stay-at-home moms who had housekeeping skills like cooking instead of skills needed to work in an office. As more women now work full-time, other professional skills like getting a higher education have become more useful.
According to a 2016 cross-sectional study of learning cooking skills at different ages by the National Institute of Health, mothers remained the primary source of learned adolescent cooking. However, there has been a reported decline in the importance of cooking in the domestic sphere. Because of this, there may be a decrease in mothers’ ability to teach the next generation how to cook.
Senior Abigail Bartholo plays varsity lacrosse and is currently taking six Advanced Placement classes, which takes up a significant amount of time. She rarely spends time cooking because she is busy with all of her other social and academic activities.
“Sometimes I might boil some pasta, but other times I might just put frozen food in the microwave,” Bartholo said.
Some trends, like frozen food options, show a greater desire for convenience and have led to an overall decrease in cooking skills among young adults.
“Just being able to cook should be a good standard in and of itself,” Bartholo said. “There should be no narrative that women should be able to cook better than men.”
Senior Ryan Marvier goes out to eat around three times per week, yet finds cooking to be an important part of staying healthy. However, he feels like most of his friends find themselves eating out at fast food restaurants instead of cooking for themselves.
“People are lazy,” Marvier said. “I don’t think enough parents stress the importance of being able to cook.”
Marvier also believes that there is a direct correlation between wealth and teens’ average consumption of fast food. Historically, fast food was designed and marketed towards the lower class for being inexpensive and accessible. Consistently eating out at restaurants like McDonald’s used to be a sign of lower income. Marvier believes that now, eating fast food is a sign of wealth and superiority and a reflection of a wealthy area like Marin County.
“A lot of kids are sheltered… I think people who get more money from their family have more freedom to go out and do what they want,” Marvier said. “They tend to buy more fast food and don’t learn how to cook.”
Senior Elijah Dusinski, son of an executive chef, agrees that cooking is falling as a common life skill.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are [losing] the skill,” Dusinski said. “It could arise from the ease and the price of fast food, but on the other side, as all the prices start going up, it’s becoming less available.”
According to a food price outlook study by the USDA using the all-times Consumer Price Index (CPI), national economic inflation has increased 0.4% between December 2025 and January 2026. This is an increase of 2.4% overall since January 2025. Food prices have especially spiked among farm-raised meat, including egg prices, wholesale beef, wheat, farm-level fruit, milk, and vegetables.
“It’s going to cost more to go out to eat compared to cooking your own dishes, which are very cost-effective,” Dusinski said. “Everyone needs to know how to cook… It’s a life skill that’s necessary.”
As more students participate in extracurricular activities and hobbies, their reliance on fast food may also increase as the skill of cooking might lose its value amongst the youth.
