21st Century Parenting
Cook Eat REpEat By Olivia Sinco
A parent recently confided in me, “She probably spends too much time playing Roblox online with friends…it’s tricky, she doesn’t really play with toys anymore, and being an only child…there seems to be a lot of time without much to do.” In some ways, it’s easy to relax as our kids reach the senior years of primary school. At age 10, 11 and 12 they can have established friend groups and know the expectations of the school system pretty well. Yet another conversation I had with a friend this week confirms what parents of teenagers already know - that parenting high school students requires not less, rather it’s way more: time, energy, supervision and quality connection than is needed in the earlier years.
“This gap between developmental stages can be filled perfectly with all of the amazing benefits of cooking.” This gap between developmental stages can be filled perfectly with all of the amazing benefits of cooking.
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Supernal Magazine
Could the air fryer, toaster, Nutri-bullet, microwave, fridge, freezer, sandwich press and oven become the new toys for our ‘in-betweeners’?
“Could the air fryer, toaster, Nutri-bullet, microwave, fridge, freezer, sandwich press and oven become the new toys for our ‘in-betweeners’?” Calling out to them from the kitchen around 5pm to do just one task is how it can begin. Peel the potatoes, chop a cucumber, put toppings on a pizza base, grate some cheese; while they become interested in what’s for dinner, kitchen skills will be picked up incidentally. The supervision they’ll need won’t add much of a burden to our own schedule as we’re in there making dinner anyway, and the regular quality
connection, even just a few minutes once a day, will form a foundation for that clear channel of communication we need with them moving forward into secondary school. There are many quotes online regarding the joys of cooking with children; harnessing imagination, embracing mess and being patient. However, teaching kids how to cook isn’t a romantic notion to act on every now and then; it’s an essential life skill! Learning how to plan meals, find ingredients in a supermarket, preparing tasty, healthy food and accepting the clean-up process are all excellent reasons to call kids away from a device. There seems to be a culture of separation in homes now that I would love to see change, whereby kids tap out of family life and into the online world of
