Not everyone has turned to convenience foods. I know I see a lot of Lean Cuisine frozen meals at the office, not to mention, Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's and Arby's bags at lunctime (how people can afford to eat at fast food places every day is beyond me), but some of us still actually cook a decent meal at least once a day (at our house, twice; breakfast and dinner and I have leftovers for lunch).
As a way to cut our grocery bill, I stopped buying a lot of convenience foods several years ago and started making more things from scratch like cookies and pizza, etc...
We eat out maybe two or three times a month at the most.
Still...I think it's good for kids to grow up knowing how to at least cook a basic meal...both boys and girls, but whose responsibility is it to teach them...the schools or their parents? When I was growing up, my friend's family all took turns cooking dinner (when they were teens, of course) at least one night a week and I cooked my first complete Thanksgiving dinner when I was 13. Of course, if the parents can't cook, that presents a problem.
My 7 and 8 year old daughters can already operate the microwave to make oatmeal for breakfast as well as measure the correct amounts of oatmeal and water to do so, crack eggs and make their own lunches. I still have to supervise the lunch making or they would have all chips and no healthy foods, but we're working on that. I'm looking forward to the day when they can cook dinner instead of me.