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

[Quattrocento]

Well, AIBU?

looks like a goood link...will look at that later Boffin.....

Quattro - I don't think YWBU at all. The only thing I would be worried about with a 10 year old cooking at home alone was getting heavy dishes out of a hot oven (I myself sometimes find this tricky and have burnt myself before) but as the dish she made didn't involve that I don't see the problem.

i have done all five with my children i am proud to day ( even driving the car!)

I'm gonna be really dumb now but what is a pocket knife used for?

My son whittles bows and arrows with his, makes impromptu tent pegs, cuts up cheese on picnics, pieces of string, etc.. . Many's the time we've been really glad he has it on him. He's had a pocket knife since he was 11 (we were living in Canada at the time and they're a lot less hysterical about pocket knives than in Britain). This legislating anything sharp is a completely ridiculous response imo- even in prison with no resources at all they are able to make weapons. The problem is not the knife, but the motivation of the person behind the knife. The knifings in this country are not caused by knives but by young people too quick to resort to extreme violence. It's a lot harder to tackle that than to limit the sale of disposable razors to the under 21s though.

Is that true??? How do young lads shave if they can't buy razors????? I had no idea there was so much razor-related crime in the UK. I thought it was flick knives and things like that.

When he says playing with fire I wonder what he means. I would be happy for DS when he is older to build say a camp fire but not just burn random stuff and see what happens.

When I was 10 I carried a whittling knife in my belt- birthday present from my parents if I rember rightly. And I was alone in the woods whittling away without supervision. Swedish preteens probably still do.

So as you all think 4 hours alone cooking at 10 is fine (I dont ) where do you draw the line ? Do you go out for the evening and leave a child ? Go to work in the school holidays and leave them unsupervised ? Leave them for the night ?

mumto2andnomore (hihi I used to be 3andnomore in a former id...):
well...it all depends on the child, surely?
As for me, ds is 12, and whilst I ratehr he doesn't cook when alone (more because he is dippy and we have gas), he now does stay "Home alone" when I am at work or Uni and dh works (he works shifts)....my little ones both go to a friend, but es just wouldn't want to do that....
obviously this is more an issue when it's school holidays. He likes to sleep in and than will get himself ready and will generally be off to a friends house...
there are several neighbours around and my childminder lives in the street, and he knows that he can go there any time...he also has our phonenumbers and could jsut ring us with questions...
I don't think that that is generally a problem, tbh...

As paid childcare generally does not seem to be geared up towards Kids 10 and over...I suppose many people wiht children of that age might have the same arrangements....

My es has been left alone with the lil ones , either we were at next door neighbours or we were out locally and next door neighbours were his immidiate back up call...

I personally think it really is not a black and white issue...it depends on soooo many things...i.e. I possibly would not be happy to do this if it was a daily occurance, i.e. every single day of every Holiday....but if it is only a few days...I can't see the harm....

I was a latch key Kid from about 10 years on...don't think it did me any harm...but I suppose when I was that age, it was far more common and acceptable

we have had plenty of bonty#s in the back garden where the kids have built the fire up - tried to keep it going - lit it, addd more fuel.

i think i was lucky in that when my kids were little a swiss army knife was ok - now they would get arrested - but then if all three of them walked into town together the police could officially 'disperse' them - these darn groups of teenagers pmsl. i digress.

i thought the one thing people would pick up on out of the five was the driving whilst having a kid on your lap doing the steering wheel.

ive done that - they loved it.

pmsl @ Boffinmum "razor related crime" lol

I'd fullly expect my dd to be able to cook a fairly decent meal alone by the time she is ten.

She is 5 atm and can make up pancake batter and sarnies sarnies and knows the ingrediants to fresh cheese sauce

i can't cook carbonarra from scratch.

most my kids ever managed at 10 was beans on toast.

well done your dd

I am sooooo jealous. As kids, my bros and I were all cooking quite confidently by that age, and I assumed that dd would be too. MIL (and, to a lesser extent, dh) are so 'risk averse' that she's been scared off having anything at all to do with the cooker, so she'll help prepare veg (managed to teach her how to use knives before MIL got stuck in) and will make tea (again got her doing that before MIL could make her scared of hot water!), but that's it. Can't get her over her fear of the oven/hob.

I was cooking very confidently by 10 and today still make many dishes that I made back then (chicken pie, profiteroles, quiche and many others). My 9 year old ds makes bolognese sauce on his own amongst other things and my 7 year old is my sous chef every day in terms of chopping, weighing, stirring and kneading.

I still wouldn't let any of them do anything involving sharp knives, boiling water or stove top cooking when I'm out of the house. My hands and forearms are literally covered with burns (as are any good cook's!) and I still have a shocking scar where I nearly severed my finger preparing a quiche lorraine at 11. I really really wouldn't want my young child having an accident like that when they're home alone, no matter how sensible they are.

I also really wouldn't want them to make a carbonara involving onion, cream and plain water!

I didn't see the steering wheel on lap. I would do that up my Nan's long gravel drive but that's all not on an actual road.

The spear thing well I don't think DS would every get the chance to do that except maybe javelin throwing at school.

Custardo, there are a lot of terrible bikini line jobs out there, you can't be too careful. And all that teenage acned skin scraped raw by inappropriate shaving techniques. Crimes against skincare.

Not to mention DH's painful attempt to shave his own back hair aged 18.

The easiest pasta dish in the world Carbonara from scratch (and what the hell is the alternative?):

Two whole eggs
50 cl of sour cream
70 grams of freshly grated parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper

Beat all these together with a fork in a bowl and put to one side.

Fry 200 g of chopped pancetta until just crispy. Drain of excess fat. While doing that, cook 500 grams of pasta (penne are good for children) until al dente. Drain pasta and return to pan. Add egg mixture and pancetta and cook over a very low heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the sauce thickens. Serve. No extra parmesan required.

the easiestest pasta dish

italian sausage tortellini in packet - cook until al dente - add sauce from jar

Don't understand where this idea of putting cream / sr cream in carbonara has come from -I've never seen this in Italy! if your carbonara is veering towards being a bit dry, just add some of the starchy pasta water.

I was taught to make carbonara in Italy by an Italian girl and she used cream.
Her recipe was: chop an onion very fine, fry, add bacon and fry that. Beat the eggs, cream and grated cheese together and then stir everything into the pasta when it comes off the heat.

AS I say, I'm Italian and I've never heard of it. Also just googled "Carbonara and cream" which brought up countless references as to how this is never done in Italy (like putting cheese on seafood pasta) so at least I know I'm not going mad!