OT: Meal help – what & ages

Your kids do more than mine in the kitchen, honestly.  I can see where they would get burned out – just like we do!  What about giving each of the older 3 just one day to handle (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)?  That could be Mon, Wed, Fri, for example.  Then have the 11yo with you and the 5 year old do a day (Tues. in this example).  And the 8yo, 6yo, and you take the fifth day (Thurs).

You would be able to invest the time to teach the 11, 8, 6, and 5 year olds in small groups in kitchen skills so they become more independent as the grow.

At my house unless the 14 year old or daddy cooks I’m involved (my next oldest is only 10).  So I have two kitchen helpers per day and each one does what fits their skill range, with me there to oversee, help, and teach.  There are some meals they don’t need my help at all, such as ham and green beans in one crock pot with potatoes baked in a second crock pot.  There are others where they just need me for lifting – ex. draining a pot of pasta because a lot of my kids are short and we cook a lot to feed 10 people.

So the helper pairs are 14yo and 4 yo on Sunday and Thursday, 10yo and 6yo on Monday and Friday, 9yo and 7yo on Tuesday and Saturday.  Wednesday I work with the 3yo (Mason, who, with a wheelchair has some obvious challenges reaching things in the kitchen).  On your day you are responsible for the dishwasher and all meal prep/cooking/cleanup.

Things my younger ones can do (age 7, 6, 4): peel veggies, cut soft fruits or veggies like cucumber, get cans from basement and open cans, pull out all ingredients while older child of the pair reads off what they need, set table, stir things (esp. if they are baking something.  These ones can also use the Bosch mixer under supervision to mix bread dough, etc, not just stir with a spoon).

I’m home from church with some medical needs to attend today and have the 4, 3, and 2 year old with me.  The 4 year old just helped me make chili.  I’ll share what I did and what he did.

He:

• got cans of beans and tomatoes from basement, fresh garlic from the pantry, measuring spoons, strainer, can opener, pan for browning the sausage, spoon for stirring that.
• Opened beans and drained.  Opened tomatoes and put right into crock pot. Added beans, water.
• Helped me measure out spices (I got down from a high cabinet) and dumped into crock pot.
• Put away can opener.
• I cooked the ground sausage on the stove, it was frozen, and when done added it to the chili in the crock pot.  Honestly, sometimes we don’t even do meat so this meal could have been done by the 4 year old with just me helping measure spices.  And occasionally I’m totally on the ball and have had a seasoning packet making session with kids where we bag up the right amount of spices for chili, spaghetti, etc so they just grab one baggie and dump it into the pan.

When lunch time rolls around the only thing left to do is grab bread or crackers, butter, and a fruit.  He’ll prep the fresh fruit (pluck grapes) or he will decide he wants peaches and pears and open the cans and drain off the juice.

I think the key is not to burn them out.  Give them fewer days a week responsible for every meal BUT on their days be sure they aren’t just sticking with old favorites.  Every so often they need to stretch their cooking skills and try a new dish.

I have 8. My oldest is just now 17 (an upcoming junior) then we have 10, 9, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2. I may ask my 17yo to cook occasionally, and he can. He will also ask to make dinner sometimes, either when he sees I’m overwhelmed or when the fancy strikes. However, he is so busy with school (6hours a day) and his business, that I don’t require anything of him. He has put in his dues, so to speak, and pitches in wherever is needed, but he doesn’t have any assigned chores. I lay that burden on my younger kids, because they don’t have the big responsibility of school and work. I would really try to balance serving the family with the very real nature of burnout. I’ve heard too many oldest children say they won’t have large families because they were so burdened as kids. Obviously, they need to learn to work and serve, so it’s hard.

I realized I was laying much of the burden on my oldest, and not expecting my younger set to step up. That coupled with the demands of high school work, and I completely took him out of formalized chore assignments.

One of the middle boys will make breakfast. The 8,9, and 10yo are good with oatmeal. They still burn eggs, so we have to work on that. We do cereal or pb toast a lot.

Lunch is crockpot lunches from Large Family Logistics or sndwiches. Everyone pitches in, but it’s me doing any cooking. I need to make assignments, though, because they all like cooking. I just have to get organized.

My kids are 9, 8, and 5.  They basically take care of themselves for breakfast.  Bagels, oatmeal, cereal, and toast (all with fruit) are our basics.  We usually have hard boiled eggs available if they want them.  None of my kids are big eaters in the mornings.  DD9 and DS8 are also capable of scrambling eggs and making pancakes.  I transfer milk into a smaller pitcher so DD5 doesn’t have to handle a gallon jug.

For lunch, we usually have either sandwiches or leftovers.  I intentionally double all recipes that can be frozen and whatever we don’t each for lunch the next day is frozen into serving sizes for my DH to take to work.  The kids can make their own sandwiches, as long as someone helps the youngest cut the bread.  DS8’s specialty for lunch is grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.  They can also make things like tuna melt or quesadillas or nachos.  DD5 is our expert “squiggly noodles” (Ramen) chef.

Suppers I usually do, with help.  DS8 has recently become excited about learning to BBQ.  He can now do hamburgers and hotdogs by himself, and is working on learning steak or chicken.  DD9 is learning to follow a recipe for slow cooker stews or chili.  They both have goals of learning more cooking this summer.  DD9 is also working on learning to bake cookies, bread, muffins, and cakes.

We don’t have any specific assignments, we just work it out depending on schedules and moods.  Also, the entire family works together to clean the kitchen after every meal.

Misty, those are great ideas. It will be good for everyone to get used to cooking the same things. I think I will implement that in our kitchen.

One of my Titus 2 ladies is a mom of 9, whose husband is military, so lots of moves and deployements. Her advice to me has always been to have the same meals over and over, but I usually only use that advice in stressful times. I need to get back to that on a regular basis, for sanity’s sake.

Good thread. Thanks for starting it.