To leave DD (10) home alone for 4 hours and expect her to cook lunch for our return

[Quattrocento]

Well, AIBU?

I think a sandwich would suffice.

yes.

YABU expecting her to cook, depending on her maturity I don't think you are being unreasonable to leave her at home and ask her to sort out some sandwiches.

Are there some loose roof tiles she could fix while you are out?

personally i wouldnt leave a ten year old at home alone for four hours unless i had absolutely no choice in the matter. 9two perhaps, but four is i think pushing it a bit.imo)
depends on what your expectation of lunch is. a cheese and pickle sandwich, yes, she should be able to do that. a lasgne made from scratch. no. nor would i be happy for her to do a salad, as i wouldnt want my kids using a knife n the kitchen unless i was also inthere with them.

A chimney to be swept?

Good if you can get her to do it but I'd have thought sandwiches would be enough

lol ... depends whether you want lunch to be edible. It also depends how much experience your child had of cooking in a kitchen and what she is cooking.

If cooking lunch involves using sharp knives and taking stuff out of a hot oven then you are being unreasonable. However there are dishes she could safely prepare.

I don't think you are unreasonable leaving your 10 year old, provided she is happy to be left.

I thought I'd wait for some outraged responses before elaborating.

DS had a choral festival this morning. DD literally begged to be left home alone. We'd never left her home alone for that length of time and were a bit nervous.

But we did and it was fine.

The DC's do cook regularly, and she offered to cook lunch for our return. Again, they'd NEVER cooked without me hanging around outside the kitchen, so very nervous about that as well.

She chose to cook carbonara from scratch, and it was amazing. The table was properly laid, she'd remembered jugs of water and parmesan.

Isn't she fab?

How lovely

wow
i get the occasional sandwich, and coffee. but ds1 just not interested in cooking.

I used to beg to not be dragged along to things I wasn't interested in when I was ten. I should have learned how to cook, because I bet now you will definitely let her do it again!

I am very impressed, Quattro

LOL at the rooftiles though!

my 11 year old son brings me a cup of tea in bed every morning.trust me thats well worth teaching them
hes been doing it since he was about 8, but hes only just started using the kettle. i taught him to make it boiling a mug of water up in the microwave-clever eh

dittany, I think that's the first time you have made me LOLOL

that's really good, QC. I remember making bacon and eggs for breakfast for my family aged 8, but I wasn't left home alone to do it (they were all in bed!)
I made shepherd's pie for the whole family for dinner when I was 11 - back in the dim and distant, I think DC were encouraged more to participate in cooking, or is that just my family?

Quattro, an AIBU by stealth? How naughty! But fab dd - what a sweetheart.

Yes an AIBU by stealth. I should probably have held out longer before elaborating but was worried about being reported to social services ...

It's good to involve the DCs in cooking, I think. And it does seem a bit unfair to drag DD to all DS's stuff.

And how did you do this, did you 'train' her from an early age. I am very very of you (and her I cannot cook a carbonara) I will send DD to you once she gets to approx 5, I think that way you will have a good few years to train her for me.

Quattrocento - you are doing this as a joke thread aren't you?

No way a 10 year old should be allowed to cook unsupervised. A school would never allow it to happen for health and safety reasons in a domestic science class.

Well done your DD!

My bro and I around this age would always be home before our parents, and it was EXPECTED that we get the dinner started, washing in, etc...

When I went to intermediate school (11/12 yo) the first thing they taught us was grilled toast with chees. I was a little as I could already cook a family meal.