Expecting that a 7 year old could make a simple meal?

[bigbarnfarmer]

I would like my kids to start taking more responsibility, they totally take for granted all i do, like most their age i imagine. However given they are getting older i want to help them become more responsible and more independant.

My 7 year old enjoys food, like sto help in the kitchen and has been making cups of tea for a while now. I was thinking tomorrow i might let him prepare a simple meal, with minimal supervision.

AIBU? and does anyone who thinks its fair enough have any simple meal suggestions.

Anyone can cook, and it can be learned very easily at any age. You can pick it up from good cookbooks or from the TV or even from the internet. No need for anxiety about it. They will get the hang of it when they have to, with a bit of encouragement.

DD1 was never the least bit interested in cooking and it showed when I let her loose in the kitchen. I am very surprised that she didn't end up scalded or burned or minus a finger or three.

Now however, she is away at university and has fended for herself for the last three years. She has cooked for company countless times, including most recently a dinner party featuring a roast stuffed chicken that she carved expertly after a YouTube tutorial. Followed by a dessert the recipe for which she also found on the net.

The rest of them have varying degrees of interest. DS took the most pride in his ability to get a simple dinner on the table, but I didn't let him near the stovetop until he was about 12. Baking appeals to the DDs more than dinner prep. They have all helped me bake from early on. One of them very kindly washed a chocolate cake that I had left cooling.

What you really should be teaching children is the art of cleaning up the kitchen after the fun of cooking is over. Meal planning and sensible food shopping are other essential lifeskills. You can do that by example over the years if your DCs are willing to accompany you to the supermarket week after week, or an e-mail when your DD calls to ask what she should buy might also sort out someone who realises she has to eat and has X amount of money to do that with.

Maryz that is a good example of the expression 'it takes a village to raise a child'.

It is virtually impossible for parents to be good parents in all ways possible, and sometimes they do need help from other sections of society.

I thought it would have gone without saying that once the DC has cooked they wash up!!

That is a very good point about first aid Maryz. DS is a Cub but they haven't covered that yet so I must drop it into conversation with him. He knows the fire safety plan though as I'm paranoid about fire.

Actually, he helped to make dinner tonight - chopped mushrooms, cooked the meatballs, grated the cheese AND laid the table - and we had a lovely time.

I think it's a briulliant idea to teach this stuff to youngers, at 7 I would assist with any cooker use probably.

AYBU to teach a child? No!

AYBU to just expect them to without positive reinforcement? Yes

They all try to forget that one Maryz!

I find some of the attitudes on this thread sad.

I spent a percentage of my working life last year finding funding and organising sessions for cookery clubs for children and teenagers who don't know how to chop an onion, because no one ever taught them.

I love cooking and baking with my DDs, the youngest is seven. Andof course you do the risky bits yourself, in and out oven, boiling water, with the little one. But you show her how it's done safely. Otherwise you end up with an 18 year old who doesn't know how to do it safely.

If they want to and you take sensible precautions to minimise risks I don't see a problem, DC were able to make a cup of tea/coffee, help prepare foodstuffs from age of 4. From 6-7 simple meals, beans on toast, scrambled eggs, baked potato. DS1 is now 23 and a chef and far better at cooking than me . DS2 at uni and sources/prepares/cooks, from ingredients, notusualstudentdiet , meals for his girlfriend and himself. DD lost interest in cooking during her early teens but now aged 20 and living with BF is cooking and often posts pictures on facebook of her cakes doesn'tsendmeanythough!-- None ever burnt/scalded themselves as children but learnt how to cook/budget/plan/prepare meals long before leaving school. They also have a healthy relationship with food. I am not a good cook and was brought up by granny who still wouldn't let me near the cooker when we visited, when I was grown up with my own DC!

rhonda you are the 2nd person on the thread to mention teenagers not knowing how to chop an onion (I think the other poster was secondary school teacher)

is this an exageration?

I find it astounding that this could be true. Or commonplace at least?

Bejeezus there are 2 reasons for that. One is the children who grow up in families where cooking involves opening the oven and chucking things in from the freezer or pricking something with a fork and putting it in the microwave.

The other is the parents who think they are doing their children the world of good by doing everything for them but with no thought to what this actually means when they have to fend for themselves!

DS is 9 and loves to cook, especially to bake. he makes fabulous sponges, muffins and fruit loaves entirely on his own and has done for a while. he can make tea and coffee, a bacon butty and simple pasta dishes as well as home made soup.
DC1 was similar, DC2 is still a menace in the kitchen and she's 18. It depends a great deal on the child.

Maryz you're making me nostalgic! I did 'safety in the home' and probably some basic first aid in Brownies, as well as the cook's badge. We did a 'hostess' badge too - definitely involved making tea (warming pot, placing nicely on tray and many niceties I rarely bother with now!)

I certainly knew about running burns under cold water and there was much emphasis on chip-pan fires - reflecting the time and perhaps place.

Having mastered cooking a meal, which was a challenge at the time, I remember taking a while to pass my cook's badge because I insisted on adding blue icing to the obligatory cupcakes (green-coloured peppermint flavour on the chocolate ones I think) and this was deemed unacceptable. I must have given in and made white icing and little butter-icing butterflies eventually.

i asked my two what they would do if they got burned. six year old knew to run it under the tap, three year old said 'get a grown up', which i thought was promising until she said 'to kiss it better for you'...

Bejesus it's sadly true.

In fact, one of the first things our chef does is show them veg and talk about it, then try to get them to touch and taste it.

Obviously this isn't all of them but there are quite a few.

I work, but don't live, in a city sadly famous for its very poor diet. There is a great suspicion of strange foods among them.

Great thread. Agree with OP. Good for confidence for children as well. Food for thought (geddit?)

In fact, one of the first things our chef does is show them veg and talk about it, then try to get them to touch and taste it

WHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTT?!!

proper shocked

work, but don't live, in a city sadly famous for its very poor diet. There is a great suspicion of strange foods among them

haha! it sounds like an old folk lore or something

can you tellus where it is?

Love your 3 yr old Aitch

it'll be glasgow. it's always glasgow. come now, stop pretending you don't know that all children don't recognise courgettes. you've seen the telly...

exotic you know they've demonstrated that a mother's kiss does anaesthetise pain? totally true. psychosomatic, but true.

I am sure if you think very very hard you could figure it out!!

I must stress its not all of them, but a surprising proportion.

I have adult friends too with the most appalling eating habits, and I have posted befor about dd1 s friends coming for dinner

Me - is there anything Little x doesn't eat?
Parent - oh no, she eats anything...
Me..great!
Parent - ...except vegetables, she doesn't like vegetables. Or fruit.

Me - which ones?
Parent - any. She eats everything else though.

Me - !!!!!!!!

I don't take it as badly at work, that's what I supposed to deal,with, but I admit I hook my judgeypants with the friends parents.

mummy kisses ARE MAGIC!! everyone knows that!!