Cooking is one of the most essential skills that you want your child to be competent in before leaving your care and setting out on their own. It’s no secret that knowing how to cook healthy and delicious meals at home saves a lot of money – something that kids who’ve recently left the nest notoriously tend to struggle with.

Learning to cook is a core part of becoming self-sufficient and is as vital as learning how to drive or learning how to complete basic handyman jobs around the home. Every parent should do their kids a favour and take the time to teach them some basic cooking skills before they leave home.

While there’s no shortage of fantastic local restaurants for your kids to dine at, they can’t sustainably do this every night of the week. While saving money and prioritising health are the main reasons to cook at home, there are several other benefits as well.

Starting simple

A great way to start teaching kids how to cook is to start with simple, four-step recipes with the aid of a service such as EveryPlate that delivers ingredients straight to your front door. This makes the cooking experience feel less like a complicated chemistry experiment with dozens of ingredients and complex instructions.

The next step would be to encourage greater complexity in dishes and demonstrate the benefits of more involved cooking. Creating a genuinely exquisite meal after some hard work in the kitchen is extremely rewarding.

Exposing a career choice

Of course, the earlier you expose kids to cooking, the earlier they can potentially fall-in-love with the process and potentially make a career out of it. There’s always a demand for great chefs, and it’s a gratifying career path both in terms of money to be made and potential accolades that can be earnt.

The bonus is that if they eventually open a restaurant of their own, you’ll be eating free! Teaching your kids to cook can be a long-term investment that really pays off, like the calculated investments people make with the help of firms like Perpetual.

Expanding their horizons with food

The earlier you teach kids to cook, the earlier they develop a more advanced palate and appreciation of different types of food. When kids are exposed to all the different tastes, aromas, and textures of different kinds of food, they will grow up to be less picky eaters.

This can benefit your kids in a lot of ways that aren’t so obvious. For example, they will be more open to going to try different food experiences when they go out with friends or on a first date, helping them avoid any scrutiny over picky eating as an adult.

Spending quality time and creating valuable memories

The benefits of cooking with kids are not just educational or utilitarian. Cooking with your kids is also a great bonding experience that brings you closer together. Rather than everyone in the family being isolated in different rooms facing computer or television screens, cooking brings everyone together and will undoubtedly prompt discussion, laughter, and praise.

It’s never too late to get started

Even if your kids are in their senior year of high school or are in the midst of their university studies – as long as they are still at home with you, it’s not hard to find time to teach them to cook. Most of the time, older kids are mature enough to understand the necessity of learning to cook something more complicated than scrambled eggs or 2-minute noodles, and they will probably appreciate you taking the time to teach them this essential life skill.