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?

Not sure about this one, my two are 10 and 11 and they can do a few recipes but I am always in the background. Not in the house at all? I don't know. I don't think I would. If it was pot noodles or baked beans on toast then yes, but home made soup i don't think I would le them do if their is no adult in the house.

Hairspray's is a good compromise, not least because it makes sense on all levels: pasta really is better when eaten fresh so should not be cooked until all guests have arrived.

another thing -- its their own home, the kitchen that they know. you're not letting them loose in an industrial kitchen

I could cook a full meal unsupervised from about 8- roast dinner, spaghetti bolognese, pork chops in tomato sauce. Think that's maybe a bit young, but it was needs must in a single parent family with a working parent. I'd been helping to cook/bake since I was about 3, could do a cake myself by 5.

I think really, a child should be able to cook something simple by roughly 10, with minimal supervision I.e. Adult in house but not in kitchen. And definitely be able able to cook a meal by 12 without supervision.

It does depend on the child of course.

not sure.

no porblem you being in the house. (my 7 year old cooked microwave potatoes lunch unsupervised.)

not so sure about not being in house. depends on how long they have been cooking, how safe they are, do they know first aid/emergency procedure. etc. probably not given your description.

My 10 year old can cook some very basic stuff. If we had an electric hob I would be happier for her to do it when we were out, however we have a gas hob so actual flames, which makes it easier for something to go wrong. eg I have caught an oven glove on fire by accident when the small hob was turned down low so practically invisible and I forgot it was on.
Putting stuff in the oven or microwave would be okay though.

13 year old independently cooks family meals from recipes a couple of nights a week. Starts cooking before I'm home. Sometimes my 10 year old assists - in which case I'll be at hand. My 17 year old is less keen to cook but still does.

The older one cooks chilli, paella and curry independently. Finds a recipe and tells me what to buy ingredients wise.

Give kids sharp knives. Blunt ones are more dangerous

By the time I was 13 I could cook Sunday dinner without supervision.

:: DD has been cooking one meal a week at least since she was 10. 7 year old regularly chops with sharp knife...mind you he has his own toolkit, which includes saw and drill which he uses unsupervised and has done so since he turned 6. Kids are very capable. like anything else you start with them doing it when you are there and when you see they can manage you let them get on with it.

I left home at 16.
I wasn't even allowed to use a kettle unattended so I was pretty hopeless.
I think making something simple like pasta is fine.

I cut off the tip of my finger using a mandolin when I was 15. I thought I knew what I was doing as I did help out a lot normally !!!
My brother (24) was meant to be 'supervising' but he just panicked and rang my mum at work. I'm in my fifties and still have a scar on the tip of my index finger.
In your shoes, I'd let them cook dinner on their own in the house, but only something very simple for the first few times.

I think it's fine. They're 12/13, secondary school kids, they're (in the op's own words) mature.

They've cooked things like this before & the op would be gone approx half an hour, so not long.