13 and 12 year olds cooking dinner unsupervised

[HelgaHufflepuff76]

I've encouraged both my dc to cook from a young age. Dd likes to bake and ds prefers to make salads and pizzas. However, I have only let them do any cooking while supervised by an adult.

Today Dh was about to go out and asked if I wanted to come along (would have been gone about half an hour) I said no because I was about to begin cooking dinner. He then suggested that the kids could cook the dinner while we were out. The cooking he wanted them to do would've been simple, but involving the cooker and sharp knives, which they know how to use safely.

Both kids are sensible and mature so I don't mind leaving them at home for short periods, but leaving them cooking doesn't seem right to me. He thinks I'm overprotective and that most kids should be doing this kind of thing unsupervised at their age.

So AIBU or is he?

At that age I cooked dinner for my family before mum was back from work, on a gas hob or using the oven. I was quite responsible but it was fun!

(And put the finger on ice!!) Not on ice directly but wrapped separately
then in ice.(Newly qualified first aider alert!!)

Why don't you have them cook a dinner for you all one night when you are at home. Go into another room and don't go into the kitchen or interfere and tell them they have to do it by themselves and see how they get on.

The biggest risk would be the two of them falling out and fighting in the kitchen, surely?
13 and 12 years olds should be able to cook a simple meal, and follow a recipe, but it they don't generally cook I wouldn't go out the first time they do.
DD(10) has a repertoire of pasta, pizza, salad, sponge cake, biscuits, cheese and ham toastie.

Have you actually taught them how to do things safely?

YABU
They actually should be doing that.
Maybe not the barbecue though

They have been taught to do things safely.

The issue isn't whether they should be cooking at all at their age, but whether it's advisable to leave them in the house alone with no adults, doing things that could be potentially dangerous.

Clearly Food tech is a waste of curriculum time - and TBH if your children cant peel a spud and grill a chop and sling a bit of salad on a plate at 12 and 13, then I despair , you should have been teaching them this.

The other day our toaster caught on fire. I would be a bit worried about ds 12 panicking if I wasn't around and something like that happened.

How dangerous is cooking a meal? A kitchen stove isn't a combine harvester

StillDriving erm...I have taught them those things. They can cook lots of things. I was asking if people thought they were old enough to be left home alone whilst doing them.

DD is 14 and has been cooking unsupervised for quite a while now. She's a very good cook. DS - 13 - clueless - wouldn't let him within a mile of the kitchen unsupervised.?

Well Rail I must say that most of the (admittedly minor) injuries I've sustained at home have been kitchen related, as in small burns and cuts.
I also know of a child who once knocked a pan of boiling water over themselves in the kitchen and had to go to hospital.

If they're doing processes they're familiar with and using knives and equipment that they're confident with then it's fine

And at 12 and 13 they should be able to cook and use knives and kitchen appliances. You've said they can do under supervision so the next step would be doing it without supervision

I'd let kids that age cook unsupervised, if they know what they're doing. But I don't think I'd want to be out of the house.

DS managed to cut his finger badly at about 13, panicked, dropped the knife which stabbed his bare foot....Blood everywhere. .. He was generally a self sufficient child, happy being left alone for many years by that age. But he completely fell apart at the sight of blood, forgot what to do, tried to elevate the hand without first stopping the bleeding, panicked some more..... Fortunately I was just in the garden and soon able to sort him out. But it made me realise you don't really know how your child will react in a crisis. I don't think I'd leave 12 and 13 year olds cooking with noone at home.

I think doing the trial run while you're in the garden is best if they're used to being supervised but soon you can go out in the evenings and come home to a freshly cooked dinner! I was always in charge of dinners when mum was away when I was growing up as dad was helpless in the kitchen so was cooking unsupervised from about 9 years old (with step-by-step instructions written by mum), only managed to explode potatoes once, otherwise went well!

I really don't understand the sharp knives thing - If you encourage people to use inappropriate tools (small or blunt knifes for chopping things that need a proper knife) then accidents are more likely, not less!

Me too, starting with blunt knives teaches them to put too much pressure and be too rough - not good when they get a sharp knife! Actually let DD (6) cut an orange today for the first time, using a sharp serrated knife, she did very well and concentrated fully, quite proud of her!

fire: leave the house, call for help, chop off a finger:

I got confused reading your post and actually thought the chop off a finger part was part of the instructions for what to do in a fire!

I've cut and burnt myself too. Hardly a major trauma.
And teenagers aren't toddlers, they can put on a band-aid if needed. They will not cut their limbs of with kitchen knives.
A major injury is highly unlikely, unless doing something very stupid (which at their age shouldn't happen)

I'm going to get kicked here but I let my 5 yo neice and my 8 yo dd bake and cook together unsupervised. Dd loves baking cakes and neice loves trying to make pink home made pasta.

Rail they're not toddlers, but one is only just a teenager. There must be an age where the consensus is that it would be too young. There isn't an official law or anything on this, so it must therefore be a matter of opinion, which was why I was asking.

Thanks again.

I was cooking unsupervised when I was 12. We relocated to a different area and for a while it was just me and dad in the new house, I cooked tea for when he got home from work.
I'd cooked for years with mum so I knew what I was doing and was sensible enough.

A 13 should be able to cook unsupervised however also not sure I would have trusted my dd at 13 to do so. A 13 year old who has been taught from a young age should be fine.

9 and 10 I would be hesitant but 12 and 13? No problems, I did DofE at 13 and we cooked with fire unsupervised and carried pocket knives. I'd be more concerned if my child couldn't cook a full meal at that age.

IMO YABU.
Mine were 14,12 and 9 when we started the roat of each of them taking a turn at cooking the evening meal once a week (the 9 yr old got the easy meal, or some help). I'd have no problem with dc of your age cooking meals.

Just to reiterate, they can do the cooking bit ok, it's the home alone bit I wondered about. It's all good if nothing goes wrong, but if it does they could potentially panic and not know what to.
So far neither of them has had a kitchen accident, but if they did when I wasn't there I would, I imagine, feel very guilty.