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| Our family's current week's meal plan as laid out by our 10 year old on Sunday (it's a magnetic whiteboard that lives on our fridge) |
Today's guest post comes from my wonderful wife Stacey who has recently implemented a new challenge for us - she calls it #15by15 - where 15 is the minimum number of meals we want each of our kids to know how to make, entirely by themselves, by the age of 15.“Fifteen by fifteen”. That’s what I told my kids when they recently helped to make our menu plan for the week, and this time were instructed to add in one meal each that they would cook from scratch, with or without my help.
I’m not going to lie, there was some whining. My three kids, now aged eight, ten and thirteen, have been helping to create menu plans that include breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and even treats for several years now (ht stands for "Halloween Treat" - they generally last them an entire year), as well as cooking with me and/or my husband. The kids take turns doing this from week to week because they recognize that we all have different favourites, and they want to make sure that theirs are included.
Our kids also recognize that for a household to run well, and for their mom to yell less (because, well, life is stressful enough without having to worry about each meal and snack that comes next), we all need to pitch in and help. This includes other household chores, like doing the laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, setting and clearing the table, taking care of the cat's food and litter, and taking out the trash, among others. My kids know that while these are not particularly fun activities, they are life skills, and that they aren’t likely to be taught how to do them anywhere but home.
In my mind, perhaps the most important of all of these life skills, is the skill of cooking.
From the time my kids were old enough to provide constructive criticism of mine or my husband’s cooking escapades, they have also been asking that we teach them how to make particular favourites before they move out. And so, with that, came our promise to them,
"When you leave home, you will leave with a cookbook of family favourite recipes, an Instapot (because they’re awesome), and a minimum of fifteen meals that you can make completely on your own from scratch."And while there may have been whining when first announced (and perhaps even a bit of trepidation from me as I thought about the mess that would be my kitchen on at least a tri-weekly basis (I'm not including the nights my husband cooks, god-bless his mess)), my kids have fully embraced this new goal, reminding us that it is their turn to cook, with my older two kicking us out of the kitchen when they're up – which is beyond awesome, because they know that I have difficulty stepping back and allowing them to do their thing, and clearly they are more than capable.
While I can’t say that there hasn’t been an impact on the cleanliness of my kitchen, I can say that the mess has been worth making in reaching the goal of my kids becoming self-sufficient and capable of cooking with fresh, whole ingredients. They are well on their way to being able to cook fifteen meals by the time that they are fifteen years old, and, at least to date, they continue to be excited in finding and cooking new recipes, and full of pride as our family consumes them.
If you have a young family, perhaps you can consider taking on the #15by15 challenge too.
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