Do you teach your kids to cook?

I really should start teaching my girls more in the kitchen. I just have a problem with perfectionism. lol. I hate watching them make a mess or doing something not quite the right way. I guess I have to push that aside and let them learn. I didn't learn until I was in Jr high and taking Home Economics. My mother passed away a cpl years later and I never really got to learn anything from her. Which is a shame because she had alot of good homemade recipes. Unfortunately her recipe box was lost after she passed. I've had to make my own! -Tink

Yah, I helped my kids cook, when they got interested. I haven't had the chance to help my grandchildren yet, cause they are too little. I'm sure I will have the chance, when they get just a wee-bit older. Grandmas & Grandchildren go together fairly well don't they? That's cause we can give em back! :o) LOL

I think I am a bit behind the times when it comes to cooking. I will let my 12 year old cook pretty much anything. My 8 year old can do toaster and microwave. My 6 year old anything that isn't making it hot, EG sandwich. I am a bit nerve about getting them to cook. I have to work on that.

I was a great cook and always tried to include my kids. I made everything from scratch - even now, seldom use the microwave for anything but warming up or heating a cup of water for tea. ANd seldom do I have frozen foods in the freezer unless I created them and then froze them. I always had my kids helping in the kichen, tried to teach them at least the basics so they could take care of themsleve. My son took to it well and enjoyed it and can do a reasonable amount of cooking for himeelf. My daughter - as much as I tried to teach her and make her learn..she just didn't want anything to do with it! she got married and when I went over there she was so thrilled to tell me that she'd made Jell-o. Okay, at least it is something! But then she asked me..."but why didn't it turn out like yours?" I asked her what steps she did and she told me that since she didn't have any pans yet, she used hot tap water but "It didn't set very well." I asked her why she didn't just boil the water in the microwave, and she looked at me like a calf looking at a new fence! "you mean you can boil water in the microwave?" And no, she was not kidding, she actually, honestly didn't know she could do that!

My son is 4 and he loves to help me, he'll do toast and the microwave (pressing the buttons), grate cheese, butter bread (with help), he helps makes cakes and likes to help with the veg. I'm mking the msot of it as in a few years when he gets given chores I expect he'll moan!

Heey nice topic for the discussion ,let me tell you my mother never told me how to cook even there i used to see her cooking different dishes for us ,so i learnt seeing her cooking,now i am a good cook myself!

I cook with my older son (who is 7 now). Ever since I remember, he always loved being in the kitchen. When he was old enough to sit still on the counter top (around the age of 3), I would let him sit there. He would be up early with me and sit in the kitchen. I would explain what I was cooking and let him help where he could. He still enjoys helping in the kitchen. But I hated being anywhere near the kitchen when I was younger...and learnt to cook only after my older son was a year old.

Well like most kids I used to wanna help mum making cakes or whatever. I've been cooking for myself since I was about 13 tho cos me mum was lazy and I had to get my own dinner most of the time. Taught myself mostly.

It is best to let them help from the earliest age possible! I let them help make pizza, muffin pizzas, cookies, cakes, anything that they can do except for the stove and oven part! I also do the chopping and dicing if needed. You do have to supervise them carefully but there are whole websites and cookbooks for cooking with kids! It is fun and teaches them to take care of themselves and not depend on others, like learned helplessness does!

My son started cooking tooat 4 years old. Whenever I was making anything he would stop playing and just come and watch so one day I got an apron and put it round him and let him help me make meatballs, coat things in flour and breadcrumbs and roll out pastry. As the years went by and he grew older he started using the gas too. He was quite able to prepare a meal for us by when he was 14. He never considered it a chore either as he enjoyed cooking. Now he is 30 and he's married and he helps his wife in the kitchen. I think that when a child shows an interest in anything, even if they seem young, that interest should be allowed to develop. Otherwise it could be repressed and they may never ask to help again threfore never learning skills which may be even inborn. I haven't got any grandchildren yet (fingers crossed for next year) but when I will have they will certainly be allowed to join in whatever I'm doing!

My son is only 17 months old, but I like to get him involved in any way possible. I let him take out pots and mixing spoons and make 'block soup' as I call it while I cook dinner. He also helps set the table. As soon as he is big enough, probably before he turns two, I will have him help mix ingredients, and later on, help cook. I think it is important to get children involved and make it fun. Plus, they will be more likely to try new foods if they helped prepare them.

The abilty to cook is an essential part of everyday life as an adult, and for most teenagers their first job is gonna be in some sort of food industry. While I myself don't have any kids, I do have little brothers and sisters that I helped teach how to cook things. We started small with toasting bread, microwaving hot dogs and leftover pizza and such. This started right around age 5-6 which is a good time I believe as they understand that hot things are HOT. They've tasted things they are cooking before and know if it doesn't taste the same when they cook it, that somethings not right. They also understand what being sick is and that it is undesirable. I believe to many parent's don't insist their kids help them cook and teach them how. Teaching a kid to cook and letting them help you instills so many good things in your kids. It's helps build confidence and self estem, being two keys to anyone's childhood and growing up this can not be reinforced enough.

I believe that if it is good for teaching to the children to early age so that they are learning to make the work of a house so that but ahead they help its parents.

my son loves to bake with me.....he started at 3 ish. I dont let him use the stove obviously, but I think it is good to start young and get them interested in seeing how food is prepared and finding that joy. Never mind it is a good life skill...cant start to young.

if me yes i love to keep my children with me in the kitchen, so she will lern early how to cook, we know must of the kids love to go with thier mom & see how we will work for thier food, it will be good bonding also for us.

yes it is good to teach cooking to kids..because they should make habbit of doing that, ultimately it is not bad thing they are doing...they are helping themselves...even I have tried this with my sister ..she was at the age of 5.......

Good for you to make the time.I started teaching my daughter at around three. Her preschool sent home suggestions about pouring and stirring. And she loves it! Now the whole family is in the act. My daughter has gotten close to one of her 4 aunts lately and will now wait for her visits to cook instead of helping me.

yes I teach my kids to cook, cause Im a cook. and they inherit that interest I think from me, and from my father. but really teaching your kids how to cook is a very nice way of enhancing their talents especialy on household chores, but not just that, teach them also how to pray and how to appreciate things or blessings even a small one.

I alway's liked cooking with my daughter, Because I realized when she got older she know what to do as far as in the kitchen. I myself was raised by my Mom and older people so I was lucky enough to learn that there were certain thing's we needed to learn because we all like to eat and we have to at one time or another. But I know I liked and got real enjoyment cooking with my daughter, and other children, showing them thing's I learned in cooking school, and at home from my mom, and grandma, and any place I could find.

Hello! My daughter is 3 years old, and we cook and bake together very often. She enjoys the baking most. We started it about 1 year ago. She knows lots of things about the kitchen now :) I think it will be easier for her, than it was for me (My mother had never cooked with me when I was a kid). Bye