wildgarlic
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Do you teach your children how to cook?Just noticed on the website that Townie posted (Potato Council) that only 1 in 4 mums regularly teaches their children how to cook - scary. Are we going to have a heap of kids starting off in their own accommodation knowing only how to open a tin of beans or a microwave meal?
What do you cook with your children, and what are their ages. Do they enjoy it? Do YOU enjoy it? I'd also be interested in whether it is mum or dad that teaches them, or someone else? I used to visit my elderly neighbours every Saturday morning and we'd bake cakes and decorate them together. Does that still happen I wonder?
The Potato Council is running a Grow Your Own Potatoes scheme but I don't know if that extends to Scotland. It would be a great idea though - I think it's important for children to learn about food and how to grow/cook it.
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Townie
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Both my 2 (16 & 14) can cook and bake..
In fact, they go and visit their grandparents on a friday after school and stay for tea, one friday it was spag bol, and as usual when your in the kitchen, so is my daughter... anyway
granny was cooking spag bol, and reached into the cupboard for the jar of sauce, my daughter then asked her gran if she fancied making it from scratch, rattled off the ingredients they would need, quick check to see that they had everything and she taught her granny how to make a spag bol sauce 
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wildgarlic
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That's brilliant! Well done Little TS!
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Julie
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Not all kids are interested in the things their parents do though are they?
My Mum is infamous for her poor culinary skills and I had to learn on the hoof as an adult. It took a few years but I eventually worked out how to make food taste good. We had some horrendous experiments along the way though.
My daughters seem to have learned passively over the years of being around me doing it. I don't remember ever teaching them as such, but when they had their own homes, they often phoned me - and still do - with their querys.
Don't get me wrong, they all like junk food, but if you grow up eating real food it perhaps sets your expectations a bit higher. I could never afford to buy Macdonalds meals and pot noodles when they were at home so I think they saw them as an indulgent treat. I think they may still see them that way but better that than it being the norm, don'tcha think?
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Townie
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Julie said:
| Quote: | | but if you grow up eating real food it perhaps sets your expectations a bit higher. |
This is very very true... I know any time that we have gone out for something to eat (which is not that often) I find myself thinking, that I could make better and why am I paying these people for food that tastes awful
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JoH
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My eldest three (21,18 and 16) can cook and bake from scones to full xmas dinners, K (16) is even a trainee chef  I always involved them in meal prep from scratch (as I was by my parents) and even James at 3 yrs old, will make his own 'lunch' from the fridge - olives, cheese, pate... and helps me make stuff. He even as his own 'mums helper' apron 
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baldowrie
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my daughter,12, learns at school then comes and it taught the proper way!
My son also 12, yes twins, has autism and is learning how to cook and organise his meals into menu. He needs a high degree of supervision to do but he is still enjoying it.
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Thrawnquine
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I taught my son and daughter to cook when they were children. When he was at college (and broke) he wrote me a letter for Mothers' Day in which he thanked me for teaching him to cook, and for all the other skills I passed on to him.
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khitajrah
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My son just turned 9 and my partner and I have been teaching him how to bake and cook meals from scratch for some time now. He made his first chocolate and orange cake all by himself not long ago and can make a mean cheese crust pizza (that's what he did for his Cub Scouts badge).
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zombiecazz
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My DD (just turned 9) is just ace, she makes a fab cuppa, has been making herself eggy bread and scrambled eggs on toast for a while now. Yesterday I was busy putting up a kitchen unit and she was busy making a spiced caramel cake.
She weighted out all the ingredients, did all the mixing, even greased and lined her own cake tin. I did nothing for her other than provide advice over my shoulder whilst trying to make sure the new cupboard isn't going to fall of the wall.
This morning she made the icing and iced the cake too.
I'm very proud
I'll get photos later.
The older one (16) can feed himself and make pasta, bought in pizza, eggy bread and pancakes, but he really does prefer him mummy or his grandma to feed him 
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Fia
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| zombiecazz wrote: |
I'm very proud |
And so you should be,ZC
Baking seems to me to be the road into cooking with children - a fabulous inclement weather activity. Enjoyable maths, biology, chemistry, geography and physics followed by a home made sugar boost. Win win i reckon.
Now, both (13 & 18) are far better bakers than me.
I remember as a kid being "kitchen maid" to Mum - preparing the veg, making sauces, washing up the prep stuff - and do the same with mine. It's making the connection between what grows and how to deal with it with what you eat. The eldest has been an ethical veggie for 7yrs and the carnivore youngster would be delighted to eat road kill if I had the guts to do the guts...
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Maria
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| Quote: | The eldest has been an ethical veggie for 7yrs and the carnivore youngster would be delighted to eat road kill if I had the guts to do the guts...
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Think I have parellel children. In my case it's veg for 2 years- and carnivore for ever...no word of a lie.  It feels like I ate more beef expecting B than I'd had in a lifetime!
Mine both cook. What they enjoy most about baking is throwing me out of the kitchen so they can help themselves to the ingredients and extra raw mix in the bowl. I must be frugal and not leave them enough in. I'm not the best of cooks - and am re-learning what I should have been paying attention to first time around with my mum and graddad.  But the joy of re-learning is I'm learning with the kids - and usually all mistakes are edible. Somtimes I think getting it wrong is half way to getting it right.
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zombiecazz
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photos as promised.
only a tiny bit left
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dizzyblond
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I try to make cooking fun for my step children - they live on junk food and it shows!!!!! so i sit at the table to prepare veg etc and they all join in as we chat. The 10 yr old lad is really getting the hang of it - bless him he has aspergers so i am really trying to work on his confidence - and make good food and cooking fun!!!!!He made smoothies last week with very little help from me - he was so proud of himself!!!!! He can;t wait til he can pick food from the garden and we can make somehting with it!!!
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Fia
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I bet that cake tasted fabulous, ZC 
Maria said: | Quote: | | Somtimes I think getting it wrong is half way to getting it right. |
Great life advice too
I once baked a birthday cake for my father in law (we were living with his parents at the time) which turned out perfect on one side and flat on the other. Oops  So I covered it in white icing, made slalom poles from cake candles at rakish angles, washed a coupla kids plastic skiers and bunged them on. Voila - themed cake, minimising my appalling baking skills blushes.
My eldest still remembers this as the lesson in: if you have to dig yourself out of a hole, try and do it creatively 
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