At what age do you let your kids REALLY cook if they show interest?

Anonymous 4

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Frau Holle wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:13 pm
Anonymous 3 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:10 pm
Frau Holle wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 11:57 am



I don't think that's a failure on anyone's part. Kids take a long time to have cleanliness come naturally. That's not a bad thing, their brains are structured for new experiences and imagination. Cleanliness and organization come late

They learn by example and parents teaching them if they see you cleaning as you go and if you teach them how to clean a kitchen properly then there is no issue. Like I said parenting fail
They do learn by example, but children usually take longer to instinctually perform tasks based on cleaning rather than continuing on with their first train of thought.
If you teach your kids to clean as they go when they are young it will be instinct by the time they are cooking. It really isn't that hard.
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Anonymous 4 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:46 pm
Smarties wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:19 pm
Anonymous 3 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:10 pm


They learn by example and parents teaching them if they see you cleaning as you go and if you teach them how to clean a kitchen properly then there is no issue. Like I said parenting fail


If mine learned everything just by watching me, well, I wouldn't have to tell them so much. They need consistent reminders to do the things that aren't as fun before they establish those kinds of habits.
Picking up the messes you make before you move on is not very hard to teach kids at a very early age. If you start with cleaning as you go with cooking it might be harder but that shouldn't be something new. There is no reason to not teach your kids to clean as they go with everything.


I really don't understand why people are making this an issue. Yes, teach your kids to clean up after themselves. Yes, for many kids this is something that needs to be explicitly taught and not just something they will do on their own because they see their parent do it. What is there to take issue over?
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They started actually cooking with supervision by the time they were about 5.
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It depends on the kids interest. My 10 year old makes her own quesadillas and grilled cheeses on the stove because that's what she's interested in. My 13 can do that and more but doesn't cook our meals. That's my thing, but my 15 year old fixes he own meals since she eats mostly vegan.
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Smarties wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:48 pm
Anonymous 4 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:46 pm
Smarties wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:19 pm



If mine learned everything just by watching me, well, I wouldn't have to tell them so much. They need consistent reminders to do the things that aren't as fun before they establish those kinds of habits.
Picking up the messes you make before you move on is not very hard to teach kids at a very early age. If you start with cleaning as you go with cooking it might be harder but that shouldn't be something new. There is no reason to not teach your kids to clean as they go with everything.


I really don't understand why people are making this an issue. Yes, teach your kids to clean up after themselves. Yes, for many kids this is something that needs to be explicitly taught and not just something they will do on their own because they see their parent do it. What is there to take issue over?
Most people do actually know this, but there's always those people who feel parenting is one size fits all.
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pinkbutterfly66 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:09 pm
Olioxenfree wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:52 pm
pinkbutterfly66 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:36 pm Probably 10 or 11 as long as an adult is in the kitchen supervising. I saw a youtube video recently with a little boy, couldn't have been more than 4 years old. He made fried rice for himself and his little brother on a wok sitting over a small open flame surrounded by what looks like a small metal frame for the wok to sit on. He poured in oil in the wok from a gallon jug. He cracked the eggs and fried them and then each of the rest of the ingredients stooping over a wok. He kept going off-camera into his house for ingredients so I'm pretty sure that there were adults nearby. I was pretty impressed with his stir-fry skills. But I must admit it made me very nervous to have two small children near an open fire and hot oil like that.
That's the thing is often there is a difference between physical and mental ability. In rural developing areas, children often have to learn how to cook from a very early age because both parents are working and childcare options are limited, so kids become experts out of necessity. Children are very capable of learning things of that sort. The problem is just because they know how doesn't mean their motor skills match their mental development or that they are tall enough and have long enough arms to safely handle cooking over a flame. There is a high rate of kitchen accidents in rural developing communities. In the rural village where my great-grandmother grew up, she knew two different girls who suffered serious burns from kitchen accidents, one died. Luckily now most of Japan is developed enough where that is now rare, but it still happens in places like rural Indonesia, where that video was filmed.
That's what scared me the most is the open flame and that oil. Four-year-olds don't have the capacity to appreciate the full danger of either and you're right about their motor skills not being fully developed yet. And yeah, we were marrying off our girls at 14 a 100 years ago and they were becoming mothers, but that doesn't mean it was right or appropriate.

But if my kid had shown the remotest interest in cooking at 4 and not just making the biggest mess she could, she'd have been in the kitchen with me helping me cook.
All of my kids are in the kitchen with me, helping me, by two, since I see cooking as a necessary life skill, but we take a lot of safety measures.
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Olioxenfree wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:17 pm
pinkbutterfly66 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:09 pm
Olioxenfree wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:52 pm

That's the thing is often there is a difference between physical and mental ability. In rural developing areas, children often have to learn how to cook from a very early age because both parents are working and childcare options are limited, so kids become experts out of necessity. Children are very capable of learning things of that sort. The problem is just because they know how doesn't mean their motor skills match their mental development or that they are tall enough and have long enough arms to safely handle cooking over a flame. There is a high rate of kitchen accidents in rural developing communities. In the rural village where my great-grandmother grew up, she knew two different girls who suffered serious burns from kitchen accidents, one died. Luckily now most of Japan is developed enough where that is now rare, but it still happens in places like rural Indonesia, where that video was filmed.
That's what scared me the most is the open flame and that oil. Four-year-olds don't have the capacity to appreciate the full danger of either and you're right about their motor skills not being fully developed yet. And yeah, we were marrying off our girls at 14 a 100 years ago and they were becoming mothers, but that doesn't mean it was right or appropriate.

But if my kid had shown the remotest interest in cooking at 4 and not just making the biggest mess she could, she'd have been in the kitchen with me helping me cook.
All of my kids are in the kitchen with me, helping me, by two, since I see cooking as a necessary life skill, but we take a lot of safety measures.
Good for you. My kid was more into making messes than cooking. Not really good for my sanity.
Anonymous 4

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Smarties wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:48 pm
Anonymous 4 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:46 pm
Smarties wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:19 pm



If mine learned everything just by watching me, well, I wouldn't have to tell them so much. They need consistent reminders to do the things that aren't as fun before they establish those kinds of habits.
Picking up the messes you make before you move on is not very hard to teach kids at a very early age. If you start with cleaning as you go with cooking it might be harder but that shouldn't be something new. There is no reason to not teach your kids to clean as they go with everything.


I really don't understand why people are making this an issue. Yes, teach your kids to clean up after themselves. Yes, for many kids this is something that needs to be explicitly taught and not just something they will do on their own because they see their parent do it. What is there to take issue over?
It should be taught way before the kid is cooking.
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Anonymous 4 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:39 pm
Smarties wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:48 pm
Anonymous 4 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:46 pm

Picking up the messes you make before you move on is not very hard to teach kids at a very early age. If you start with cleaning as you go with cooking it might be harder but that shouldn't be something new. There is no reason to not teach your kids to clean as they go with everything.


I really don't understand why people are making this an issue. Yes, teach your kids to clean up after themselves. Yes, for many kids this is something that needs to be explicitly taught and not just something they will do on their own because they see their parent do it. What is there to take issue over?
It should be taught way before the kid is cooking.


Good grief.

I think people look for non-issues here to pick at each other over when they can't find anything else.
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Mine have yet to express any sort of interest in real cooking on their own. They probably hear me complain about cooking, since I hate doing it....lol. My 13 yo will make scrambled eggs, but that’s it.
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