The military has stated that the new recruits they are getting are less and less independent on life skills like making your bed, or ironing your clothes. Is this a generational thing that kids aren't being taught these type of lifeskill anymore?

Sorry, but as a retired LTC with a teenage boy, making my bed has never been a priority for me or my son. And really, who irons these days? Most soldiers I’d seen (at least CONUS) took their uniforms to the cleaners to be washed and pressed…not sure what the policy is on starch these days as that seemed to change every year or two.

So yes, the new recruits probably have less home economics style life skills, though my son knows how to run the washing machine and dryer and (under protest) the dishwasher. Today, he was at a friend’s Eagle Scout project, helping to build a shed for his friend’s biology department, and will be at band practice this evening. He patched a tire on my car that had a slow leak, can change a tire, replace brake pads and batteries, and use quite a number of tools. The thing is, several of his friends, male and female, can do the same. They can also cook to varying degrees. And he should be getting his driver’s license shortly.