There are so many things that parents need to teach kids in life, that some skills fall by the wayside because we think of them as being too difficult or dangerous to teach.
Cooking is one of these skills.
With the risk of cutting, burning, or general chaos, parents often keep their kids well clear of the kitchen, but they might actually be depriving them of a great experience.
Here are just a few reasons you might consider teaching your child to cook, if you haven’t already!
1. Cooking Is An Essential Life Skill
Parents are supposed to educate their children to the point that they can head out into the wide world on their own and survive. Yet so many modern teenagers don’t have the slightest clue how to prepare something that didn’t come from a box with instructions like “add water” or “microwave”. The fact is cooking is an essential life skill, and kids shouldn’t be learning essential life skills when they’re already almost grown. Covering the basics, and more, with them while they’re young gives them more of a chance to become talented cooks.
2. Kids Are More Likely To Eat What They Cook
If you have kids who are fussy then teaching them to cook might be the breakthrough you need in the dinner table battle. Kids like to own things, their artwork, their bedrooms and, when they cook, their food. When a kid ‘owns’ something, they take more responsibility for that thing, and it matters more to them. When the thing that they’re owning is dinner, they’re more likely to taste it, try it, and eat it.
3. Cooking Helps Develop An Adult Palate
There’s something about processed foods that just speaks to kids, as you probably know already as a parent. In fact, it can sometimes be difficult to imagine them enjoying more adult foods. Well, when kids learn to cook, this idea about what food is changes. Instead of just seeing a final product served up to them on a plate, kids are able to see the fresh and whole ingredients that went into the food they eat. As they get more accustomed to seeing these nutritious foods come together and eating them, they’ll be more inclined to opt for these over unfamiliar processed foods. This might be especially true when you cook healthier ‘at home’ varieties of their favourite treats!