To think knowing about food and being able to cook are key life skills?

[Notcontent]

This is something I strongly believe in, but I think that notwithstanding various small-scale initiatives to teach young people and families about healthy cooking etc the lack of skills is getting worse not better.

I was listening to a Radio 4 programme the other day about child food poverty and they were talking to some young people - one of the teenage girls talked about the fact that until recently she couldn’t cook anything)no and I also had little idea of what a normal meal should be.

This seems such wide-spread problem. So many people think of food as being readymade, processed things that you unwrap and eat.

I think that there should be education about this at schools as obviously many people are not getting these skills at home. It’s so important - eating is what keeps are alive.

This is nice. I agree with you also.

What outside of the Mumsnet AIBU forum are you doing to help promote these "key life skills" if you believe so "strongly" in it?

Yes. Once my kids are old enough (1 2 year old and one still cooking, pardon the pun!) I will be teaching them how to cook. It’s not only an important life skill but there is a lot of pleasure to be found in good food which id like them to experience and appreciate

Quite agree. My DH’s parents paid for him to learn to drive, but didn’t teach him how to cook a few basic meals.

Because obviously he’d have a woman to do that for him

I wasn’t standing for that nonsense and made sure he did the cooking until he wasn’t crap any more. He recently cooked his parents a full Sunday roast and they were gobsmacked.

Playing devils advocate here: is it possible that someone's inability to cook is not a Government or wider social problem and that making it such just further infantilises people?

I say that as someone who left home with literally no idea how to cook at all. My mum was a traditional housewife and cooking was her domain hence we never cooked growing up and were never taught to.

However, when I left home I learnt pretty sharpish by trial and error mostly. It's not rocket science. And what will all the information now available over social media, YouTube etc, I can see no reason why people cannot learn very easily.

@GinDaddyRedux

This is nice. I agree with you also.

What outside of the Mumsnet AIBU forum are you doing to help promote these "key life skills" if you believe so "strongly" in it?

I am not really sure what I can do personally! I would certainly shake things up if I was in government and introduce a health eating and cooking programme in schools...

But I also get the feeling that people in the U.K. don’t really appreciate being told what to eat etc - and I think that’s part of the problem.

It is but it's also one of those problems that gets stuck in families. Parents cant cook so cant teach their kids and so on.

I taught myself to cook and I'll be teaching my child to cook from the off.

You do know that we now have schools that don’t have cooking facilities on site for school dinners? The meals are delivered.

I cook from scratch every day, my kids watch and help. My 12 year old can make a full meal for the family. But I have friends who dont prioritise food, I just think "each to their own". I'm lucky I have the time (and the inclination) to be a "homemaker", I'm just not as busy as many mums I know.

Tricky one. I learnt to cook from my Dad, who’s a great cook. Ideally it is something you’d learn at home, but that’s not an experience everyone will have.

There are lots of resources out there. The problem is whether people have the skills and confidence to give them a go.

I think it's a load of rubbish when people say they can't cook and it's just an excuse. The truth is they don't want to cook. Fine, their choice.

It's easy to learn to cook, especially these days with the internet and YouTube videos to watch.

When I was at school (many hundreds of years ago) we did cookery lessons. Once it changed to 'domestic science' it became a bit weird - designing packaging and imagining new sandwich fillings. Maybe we need to get back to basics a bit.

I 100% agree, it’s such a fundamental thing and it’s an absolute travesty that it’s not taught properly in schools any more.

To be able to budget for food, know how to use ingredients, menu plan to maximise what you’ve got/minimise waste, and cook ingredients (effectively home economics, as it used to be called!) can make such a huge difference to your standard of living and health. Aside from the health/obesity issue, if someone is living off junk and takeaways day in day out it must cost a (relative) fortune. To know how to cook well and cheaply is a skill worth learning.

And quite aside from eating well on a budget, food is a form of social glue - being able to cook a decent meal for your friends or family (even if it’s spaghetti bol or a chilli) is one of life’s wonderful things.

Food and cooking are my passions and this is a topic very close to my heart!

I agree, and I don't buy it when people say "I can't cook". If you can read, you can cook.

Mine are only 8 and 3 but I've always baked with them and when DD gets a bit taller and can reach the oven I'll be teaching her basic cooking skills

My MIL genuinely had to ask for my help on how to make an instant soup/pot once.

If people can't even be arsed to read the instructions on the back of a packet, then there is really no hope for society. There are videos on You Tube that can explain how to do absolutely anything you could possibly imagine. Why should the government pay to teach people how to cook when there is information on the internet already available for free. You can lead a horse to your water and all that.

My parents didn't really teach me how to cook. As with everything else, I just kind of learnt it myself as I went along. Mainly by reading instructions on the backs of packets and then evolving from there. It really isn't hard to switch an oven on and chuck food in it until it changes colour. I think sometimes people make cooking appear too complicated and it just puts everyone off.

DH unsurprisingly was also a pretty useless cook. But again, he has learned along the way.

I totally agree.

I think it's such a shame when children don't get the opportunity to learn to cook at home. It can cause lifelong confidence issues in the kitchen. DH was never taught to cook - when he first moved out, he had to google how to boil an egg!

He still lacks confidence now, but he will give it a go. He can do simple stuff like spaghetti bolognese, poached/fried eggs, cooked breakfasts, toasted sandwiches etc. but he does struggle with anything more complicated. I think if he had those foundations as a child he'd be so much more confident now.

it’s an absolute travesty that it’s not taught properly in schools any more

Some of the decisions around what’s prioritised in schools do seem strange to the outsider. Basic meals before packaging designs seems obvious to me.

Equally, the lack of education around personal finance seems a bizarre decision. I’ve never used any of the maths taught to me past the age of 11, for example. But everyone needs to understand debt, budget managing, pensions, mortgages etc.

I think it's a load of rubbish when people say they can't cook and it's just an excuse. The truth is they don't want to cook.

I had a conversation with a colleague once, who told me that she was worried about spending loads on ingredients, doing it wrong and ending up with inedible food. I managed to talk her into steaming some fish with spring onions and ginger, and it was a revelation to her. If even basic cooking techniques aren’t taught (how to tell if something is cooked or work out cooking times, for instance) I can completely understand why people are put off even trying.

it changed to 'domestic science'

We had Food Technology which was all about designing ideal meals. No fat, no sugar, no salt...no taste. All that effort for something that tasted like the packaging the ingredients came in. Nearly put me off for life - I barely cooked at all from my early teens to early 20s.

I never learnt to cook properly until I was 30. So ashamed of that but I wasn't taught as a child then I lived with someone who loved to cook so he did that and I did the cleaning n laundry

Then I left him and taught myself to cook. I preferred to do it that way as I had no confidence. But I soon learnt I can cook and I really enjoy it though I also love food which is a massive factor I think. If you love food you will probably be quite instinctive and enjoy preparing new things whereas if you see food just as fuel then you might view it as a chore.

But I agree Op. This should be taught at school along with budgeting skills

All this information is readily available on the internet and is so straight forward that it doesn’t require any special guidance. I don’t see how it could be any easier for people to learn how to cook.

My mother was a very good cook but the kitchen was her domain and I was not allowed in it. I went to university never having cooked a meal. I soon learned from friends.
No excuse nowadays..my dcs can both cook and enjoy it. My stepdaughter is in her late 30s and refuses to cook.

If you love food you will probably be quite instinctive and enjoy preparing new things whereas if you see food just as fuel then you might view it as a chore.

There’s something in this, I agree. If you love food you’ll be motivated to make it well.

The problem arises when you have children growing up in homes where good food isn’t valued and cooking skills non existent. It would be a surprise to find that they end up with no ability, no interest and no confidence to cook.

Depends what you mean by cook. I can cook but wouldn't be able to make up my own recipe particularly and can only cook the things I already know. So what do you mean exactly..?

It's not hard to learn to cook , and most people can learn by trial and error,but peop!e have to want to ,though i lived in my own for years and I had no interest in cooking,it was easier just to eat takeaways ,microwave meals etc ,,once I got married and had kids I had to learn .

I agree. Its frightening how many people do not know how to cook.

I don’t see how it could be any easier for people to learn how to cook.

It’s not that the resources aren’t there, it’s that people don’t have the confidence to try. If you didn’t grow up seeing cooking as a normal thing to do then cooking can seem a mystery, alongside the fact that buying even a relatively small amount of stuff from scratch can be a fair outlay.