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.