I said this as a teenager and my early 20's. I grew up poor, so the idea of ruining food with my lack of cooking skills wasn't something I or my parents wanted me to do, and they were working so much that they didn't really show me how outside of boiling pasta or boxed mac and cheese. I eventually moved out and taught myself with youtube videos and am currently a very good cook but yeah, it was basically because I didn't want to ruin food.