AIBU to ask if your 10 year old can make toast?

[Fantail]

I would say most 10 year olds can do this, but perhaps they can't.

[exoticfruits]

My dn who is 9yo recently said he can't spread because he is left handed

Left handed children with right handed parents, who think they look awkward, come out with this rubbish! I challenge it by saying 'I'm left handed and I can spread butter....write neatly etc etc'

[SomeBear]

After I posted, I asked DD1 about her class for Food Tech - from the first lesson out of 31 (she thinks) there were five who had never used a grill or a sharp knife. This is a class of yr 7s... On the other hand, there were three students who did the majority share of meal preparation as their parents were farmers or disabled. She also reminded me that my aunt still gets up at 6am to make my cousin his breakfast and packed lunch before he goes to work. He is 24.

[Ghostsgowoooh]

Being left handed does not stop someone from spreading butter etc. They may have issues with cutting stuff though. I tend to pull things apart with my knife rather than cut properly and I know I'm not the only leftie to do this

[GregBishopsBottomBitch]

My DD at 5, tries to show how big she is by making her own toast, not eager to let her take her own toast out, but shes getting good at buttering it.

[mummyplum1]

Definitely at 10. My 7 year old can make toast. I wouldn't let him touch the kettle though.

[hatgirl]

hmmm after SomeBear's post i'm now wondering if being a farmer was the reason I started cooking from a young age rather than it actually being a normal age appropriate life skill kind of thing to do.

In all fairness.... If I didn't cook we would have literally lived off baked potatoes every night for the whole of lambing time every year.

still, to all those that don't let their children cook until they are past the age where it is worth teaching them, your children are going to be the ones I pitied at university school who try to cook pasta without any water.

Life is risky, taking risks and learning from mistakes is how humans learn and evolve. Get your children cooking potatoes rather than letting them become potatoes!

[GregBishopsBottomBitch]

Hat, my daughter likes to put the chop up tatties in the pan ready to be boiled, she likes getting involved in the cooking, shes learning, we do it safely, so why not.

[TroublesomeEx]

Oh FFS is being left handed really used as an excuse for this too?

I'm left handed and, believe it or not, they let me look after my own children and drive a car on the roads that all the right handed people use. I'm even allowed to teach right handed children...

Being LH is only really an impediment for children whose RH parents treat it as a 'condition' of sorts. The rest of us just find a way. Like everybody else!

[FoxyRoxy]

I'm left handed and I can spread butter, I didn't even realise it was supposed to be an issue! I can write neatly without smudging or turning the paper horizontal as well, I must be a genius.

[5madthings]

I am left handed, dp is left handed and so is four yr old ds4, we can all spread butter etc on toast.

[Wincher]

I only just realised this morning when taking my son to nursery late that he is perfectly capable of buttering his own toast (after a fashion) - he is 2.7 and they all do their own at nursery. I must let him have a go at home!

[GregBishopsBottomBitch]

My DD is left handed too, doesnt seem to hinder her.

[ouryve]

My 9yo can with supervision. He can make himself a sandwich, so long as I do any sharp cutting for him. He's not allowed to use the kettle or pans, though. He has SN and bounces around the kitchen like a pinball. I can't even let him stand with me while I fry him an egg because he'll stand with his nose 2" from the pan and lean over the hob with his elbows, completely oblivious, no matter how explicitly and frequently I remind him.

[ouryve]

I'm left handed, btw, and I was baking, boiling eggs, warming up milk, making custard, making cups of tea, coffee etc when I was 10. I only ever had problems with the damned tin opener - this was the days before all the fancy dancy ones that you could use in either hand.

[ByTheWay1]

My girls (10 and 12) cook -
I'll get scrambled eggs on toast with a mug of tea for my Mother's day breakfast.....

They make better Lemon drizzle cake than I do - and mine is bloomin' good.

They make the salad whenever we have it and make a stunning yellow pepper, carrot and onion soup.

12 year old wanted something hot when we had ham sandwiches on Sunday, so did herself a fried egg sandwich.

What I CANNOT do is watch them do it.

[dikkertjedap]

Of course he will be able to do it.

My six year old makes toast herself (in toaster, not grill).

[GregBishopsBottomBitch]

My DD's school sees her left handedness as an issue, shes the only leftie in the family, but shes adapted to it, she finds her way in doing things, i dont see being a leftie, as a hindrance or an excuse.

[BlackAffronted]

Erm, my 10 year old makes pasta for dinner. My 12 year old makes prope rmeals such as mince & tatties. They have been making otast for years!

[moosemama]

My ds (10) can make toast using the gas grill - we don't have a toaster - but doesn't do it unsupervised, as he has SN and his attention span and co-ordination aren't great.

All 3 dcs (ds2 8 and dd 4) can make their own sandwiches, although of course we do 'help' dd with cutting hers up.

Admittedly they're not the most beautiful looking sandwiches you'll ever have seen, but they swear they taste nicer when they've made them themselves.

Ds1 and ds2 have also started preparing a meal for the family each weekend as part of their pocket-money deal. They are supervised, but we try not to helicopter and let them do as much of it as it's safe/physically possible for them to do.

Neither boy is allowed to use the kettle yet, although I was at their age. Both boys have hypotonia and hypermobility, so lifting a kettle and pouring a jug, let alone a kettle is something they both struggle with.

[5madthings]

Ds2 is ten and is making chilli for dinner tonight as he wants to, I shall supervise from the dining room whilst I mnet and offer advice if necessary, but he knows how to make it.

Ds1 is 13 and regularly cooks meals, makesspup, bakes cakes etc, he enjoys cooking.

The younger ones help peel and chop etc and ds3 can make sandwiches, toast, porridge, but then I involve therm in the running of the household, this morning they have been washing up, sweeping floors, tidying and hovering bedrooms etc.

Children are perfectly capable of doing these things and I see it as my job as their parent to ensure they grow up to be self sufficient adults.

[quoteunquote]

Can I ask how you start the younger ones off using knives?

start with a talk about responsibility, and that only if they can demonstrate concentration and sensible attitude will they be trusted to use such a dangerous tool,

use a non serrated very medium sized sharp knife, stand them at a table with a thin non slip chopping board,

slice a cucumber lengthways, place it flat side down on the board, show them how to hold the cucumber with the non knife hand, fingers bent in backwards, so only the knuckles stick out,

video.about.com/busycooks/How-to-Hold-a-Knife.htm

www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/knife-skills-how-to-hold-a-knife.html

www.thekitchn.com/how-to-learn-basic-knife-skill-108959


show them these, talk them through it, if you hold your knife correctly there is far less chance of hurting yourself as you have better control, talk about where the knife gets placed when not in use, (middle of the table, blade pointing away)

[feckwit]

Even my 8 year old makes toast and uses the kettle. She can cook basic things like pasta, peel veg, turn the oven on and off, use the microwave. I think the greatest skill we can give our children is independence.

[BrianCoxandTheTempleofDOOM]

My 9 yo made me breakfast in bed on Friday - toast with peanut butter, a bowl of Cheerios and a cup of coffee Totally unexpected (I've taught her to do it for herself, never expected her to do it for me though!) and she makes the best coffee in the world (instant).

She can make pancakes, use the toaster, use the microwave and has been using the kettle for about 3 months. She is a dab hand at cakes but I help her with the finer points of not getting the mixture on the floor/dog/me

My DS (currently in womb) makes a mean Beef Wellington

[SmiteYouWithThunderbolts]

Thanks to this thread, I have informed ds1 (8yo) that I'm going to teach him to cook. He rolled his eyes and thinks I'm the meanest mum EVER because I've also recently taught him how to use the washing machine and started getting him to put his own clothes on the airer.

When I was 16, I dated a lad whose mum did everything for him. Granted he was in a wheelchair but to my mind that just meant that stuff needed to be kept low enough for him to reach it. Not so in his house. His mum did all his laundry - including going round his room picking stuff up from wherever he dropped it), made every meal for him and tidied up after him constantly. I was bemused to begin with but when it got to the point where he'd ring me at college to ask me to go over to his house to make lunch because his mum had gone out, I realised he saw me as just the next cleaner/carer/maid in his life. Poor bloke didn't even know how to make toast or a Pot Noodle!

Anyway, when I look at my children - especially my sons - I am reminded of that guy and how much I do not want my children to be incapable of fixing themselves a decent meal as young adults.

[fedupwithdeployment]

There was a good article in the Saturday or maybe Sunday times this week about what children should be able to cook at what age. Basic tomato sauce and pasta, scrambled eggs etc....I resolved to teach DS (aged 8) who is quite interested a bit more. I am embarrassed to say he hasn't used the toaster. He will start.