School may be out, but the world doesn’t stop spinning just because junior’s got a three-month vacation. You can’t always be expected to clean and cook for them morning, noon and night, especially if you’re dealing with a full-time job. It’s important that children learn to cook and take care of themselves, so when they’re adults they’ll be able to survive on something besides Ramen and cardboard pizzas.

Avoid the Easy Path

Summer can be hectic. It’s hard enough to handle work and all the extracurricular activities let as well cook meals. You may think you don’t have the time to teach them to cook and end up filling the freezer with microwaveable food, cardboard pizzas and other items that can just be put in the oven and heated. The worst is just giving them money before you leave and let them order pizza. This is an unhealthy path and while it might make your life easier and the kids won’t complain, but it’s not teaching them anything except how to eat processed foods.

Teach Them When You Cook

The best time to teach them is when you’re already cooking something anyway. When you’re beginning, start out with them just watching a few times. Let them see how you cut vegetables, etc. They’ll start understanding the process of cooking and how things are prepared. After a while, let them help you with the cooking. Start small with preparation and then move on to the actual cooking. Make sure they have access to numerous dishes of various difficulties. Once they’ve everything a few times, let them go at it alone. If they can make a meatloaf, then they’ll have no problem making a ham sandwich or a few eggs for breakfast.

Give Them a Chance

Every bird needs the chance to fly alone and so do your children. Make sure they have all the groceries they need and leave the house with the understanding they’re on their own. They’ll surprise you, but one aspect they need to follow is the cleanup. Don’t let them cook and then leave all the dishes for you. They’ll need to clean up their own messes when they’re on their own. They won’t want to do it, but you don’t want to do it either…and it’s not your mess.

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