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.

[FryOneFatManic]

Late to the thread I know, but DD is 12.5 and can cook a basic dinner. I'm just beginning to teach DS (who's 9 today ) so he can cook as well. Good skills to learn.

Meanwhile, they have been getting their own breakfasts, including toast, for at least 3-4 years, with DD helping DS when he was younger. I'm a great believer in getting them to be independent

[Yfronts]

yes

[quoteunquote]

a relative of mine ,a few years ago, commissioned (cost millions) a study into why they were losing so many students from the university, the course only take the very best,

they found that the students all which had gained the highest marks possible, had mainly done so because they had parents that gave very high levels of support,

when these students took up their places at university they were well equipped to deal with the academic aspect of uni life,

but when they were failing to eat three health meals, have clean clothes, clean bedding, be reminded to wash, access medical treatment, sleep well, generally run their own lives, rather than rely on parents to do it for them or remind them, they were then over come by strain and dropped out, costing the universities lots of money,

Now if you want to do a lot of the courses, you have to do a year away from home in industry, the uni found that this helped the students to become independent, so when they did start the course they were equipped to cope, once this was in place they lost hardly any students.

my eldest is off at uni, he was the only one in his house of 12, who knew how to self manage, he cooks anything easily, has always done his own washing, stripped his bed, and remade it, can clean easily, and knows how to run a budget, organise his medical treatment, and sleep pattens,

A gap year working, living away will help,

but it is a major handicap to your child to not be able to easily prepare healthy food from scratch.

It's just edible chemistry experiments, once you understand the principles, none of it is hard,

I love half term as mine do a lot of cooking, I leave them to it and enjoy the results.

[FryOneFatManic]

quoteunquote And that is exactly why I'm raising the DCs to be able to live independently. They get plenty of support, but I want them to be able to look after themselves when older, hence the cokkery lessons at home. (Along with chores, etc )

[GingerbreadGretel]

My ten-year-old has just made a chocolate cake and yes he can manage the toaster. Makes and grills his own burger patties, can do soup, etc.

He is not the most coordinated (DCD), so finds some chopping and peeling tasks hard, but we're working on it.

[MrsTomHardy]

Yes he can make toast, and wrap pizza's and cups of tea....prob a lot more things tbh

[quoteunquote]

The Amish think we are exceptionally cruel to our children as we do not properly prepare them for life, and it comes as a shock when they realise what is involved in running a home and a life,

a tiny Amish toddler is allowed to gather twigs and keep the kindling baskets full, each job is considered important, if you do it correctly you are then trusted with the responsibility to do another, so children want the next job up as they want to be viewed as equals.

my children think it is a great honour to be trusted to use ingredients, they know if they break that trust by being careless, they will no longer be allowed to have access to the kitchen,

It takes one person four hours to clean a house, and five people less than hour to do the same, everyone in this house mucks in each time anything needs to be done, and because everyone does it to the best of their ability it get done super quick, and properly.

toddlers are brilliant at pulling clothes out of a machine, everyone can help,

my youngest are 9 and 11, there isn't anything in the house they can't do to the same standard that their dad and I do, some of it better than us,

it is not an effort as they have always mucked in they have no idea people don't, they just do stuff without being asked as they know at some point someone will mention it, so they get things out the way before they get involved with what ever they are doing.

[DesiderataHollow]

quoteunquote
Yes Tudor children are the same. We often get told "you'd never get a modern child to do that" when re-enacting.

IT never seems to occur to them that we don't really have a time machine, and that the 5 year-old carefully chopping vegetables, the 7 years old using a chisel, or the 6 year old working in the dairy will all be back at school on Monday morning in the 21st century.

[DewDr0p]

Inspired by this thread I got ds1 (8) to make beans on toast for the dcs' tea last night! It went v well if a little slowly.

[meddie]

I too taught my children to be independent, as it was always in the back of my mind that they would be leaving to go to Uni at 18 and needed to know these skills
from around 9 they could make a basic meal such as beans on toast and a cup of tea
by 11 they were able to put a wash in and hang it up and iron
by their mid teens they could bake and do a proper meal.
They both went to Uni and lived on mcdonalds and pot noodles sigh
Son appeared at his first summer holiday with a bin bag full of underpants. He never left with that many. Discovered that instead of washing them he was buying a new 5 pack from primark every week.

[Hulababy]

My 10y can. But she is pretty handy in the kitchen - can cook a meal and bake pretty much independently plus make hot drinks.

[1805]

I love my dc escapades in the kitchen! The fairy cakes they made themselves were appalling - dc are 10 and 7. They of course thought they were delicious.

10yo can do baked beans, soup, toast etc, pasta, tea coffee and squash, most basic stuff all ok.

7yo burned her thumb by touching the pan on the stove and gashed her finger with a sharp knife. It's ok. It's the way she learns.

[willoughboobs]

my 7 year old ds makes toast, sandwiches,little picnics, cereals and helps with making meals. i am just worried about the kettle but i know he's got to learn soon.
as for cleaning he can polish,clean and set a table, clean all his bedroom then polish and hoover, he also cleans up after his dog on the garden

[Notonaschoolnight]

My 8 & 10. Dd both make toast but I'm also interested at the consensus for kettles god the thought of asking them to make a cup of tea ahh I'm easy pleased

[Virgil]

Also inspired by this thread I asked Ds1 (7) to make lunch today. He cooked us a lovely chicken risotto. He's very proud of himself and said he really enjoyed it.

[Virgil]

I did make up the chicken stock into a jug so that he didn't need to pour the kettle.

[1805]

10yr has used the kettle for some time now. 7yr - it'll prob be a while yet - see post up-thread.

[MaggieMcVitie]

DS (10) can make toast, tea, a fried egg sandwich (with the requisite masses of ketchup) and a sponge cake. Did a tomato sauce for pasta on Sat for the first time but I helped.

[steppemum]

7 year old baked a cake by herself (GO AWAY MUMMY I AM MAKING THIS CAKE NOT YOU) on Saturday - I did ask her to get me when she did the melting butter in saucepan part, and when she took it out of oven.

10 year old does cakes, toast, tea etc

5 year old can do toast - she uses oven gloves to get it out of toaster (but she isn't allowed to do it on her own, she asks her sibling to help)

[steppemum]

and 10 year old makes a mean beans on toast, and 7 year old apple crumble

we had a discussion last week about each of them cooking a cake in turns for the family at weekend.
dds 8th birthday party next week is a 'Great British Bake Off' party and they will all be baking something lovely and then eating it for the birthday tea

they also do chores, load and unload dishwasher, look after pets, hovering, change their own beds. (my 5 year old happily strips her bed for me - I do the clean sheets for her) They are used to sorting washing, putting it in machine etc.

Life skills - essential

quoteunquote - couldn't agree with you more