Why Cook with Children?
It’s Children’s Mental Health week.
When I was a child (or perhaps it was just the environment I grew up in), there was no interest in or even concept of children’s mental health. I had quite a severe breakdown when I was 16 and it was barely noticed, except as an inconvenience to my school and my parents.
Nowadays there is far more awareness of children’s mental health, but not necessarily more capacity to do anything about it. Mental health services have waiting lists of months or even years, and even when you can access them, they may not work well for your child.
If your child’s mental healthy is suffering, cooking isn’t going to turn things around overnight. It may not even make a massive difference at all. But my experience cooking with children online during the pandemic, and cooking with children in classrooms over the past 25 years or so suggests that providing opportuities for children to cook can support their mental health in the following ways.
- It allows them to experience autonomy and independence.
- It builds skills and confidence.
- It teaches them about food that can support their physical and mental health in a fun way.
- It allows them to take small risks in a safe environment.
- It can be social – they can share the experience and/or the food with friends, – or solitary if they prefer to work alone. The level of social interaction can match the child’s preferences.
- It enables children with specific dietary needs to feel less ‘different’ when they can eat what is on offer.
- It allows children to develop their own tastes and get used to saying what they like and don’t like.
- It can provide an environment for children and parents to interact informally – and this can give children a safe space to talk about what’s on their mind.
- It is intergenerational – it can provide opportunities to interact with different ages and work together.
- It allows you to make ‘mistakes’ in a space where there are no penalties, and even a ‘mistake’ can end up tasting delicious.
- It allows the young person to take time away from an environment that may be stressful or upsetting and put themselves in a different mode.
- It allows a child the ability to provide pleasure for themselves and others.
- It’s fun and playful.
Can you add any more ideas based on your own experience or wider reading?
If you’d love an opportunity for the children in your life to learn to cook, but you don’t want to have to do any of the organisation yourself or go to classes, my February ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ menu is out now. All you have to do is book, get hold of the ingredients and switch on your Zoom. 90 minutes later you’ll have a vegetarian-friendly, gluten and refined sugar free meal that the whole family can enjoy, and it definitely won’t be boring!
To find out more and book your place, visit my ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ page.