I've had the exact opposite experience with my mom - it took some time to explain things like icons, menus, toolbars, and context menus to her (in Windows) - but once she did, she felt empowered, because it all worked the same in every app. In many cases, this meant that she'd find a more tedious way to perform some task - e.g. using the main menu where a toolbar had the same action exposed more directly - but it was far more important for her to be confident that she could find it.

Then I got her an iPad - the very first one, back when they were released. She absolutely loves the form factor, but hates the UI, and finds it inconsistent, having to learn every app on its own. You could say that this is partly because of having to re-learn - except that it's been several years of nearly exclusively using iPad and iPhone for all her needs, and she still finds it terribly inconsistent.