In the US it’s not crazy for kids maybe as young as 6 to make themselves sandwiches like a PB&J/Ham & Cheese either if parents have an emergency, or to take to lunch for themselves because parents didn’t have time. (Or you know, they’re neglectful)
So is there a go to food for children to make in other cultures?
EDIT: Sorry for phrasing it like teaching 6 year olds to cook is mainly to help parents. Personal experience of dad going to prison and mom working 12 hour days at early age shined through. So me being taught to cook wasn’t “This is a skill that’ll be useful as you grow older” but instead was a “Things are going to be rough, and sometimes things won’t work out with me being there when I need too, and I want you to be able to be okay in an emergency”. So cooked myself food when I was little probably a lot more than others, then when I was a teenager I was cooking dinner for the family a lot.
But makes sense it wasn’t the case for others! Still the curious, what other cultures teach their children to cook!
I live in the Netherlands and I learned to make my own lunch from an early age. Can’t say for certain at which age, but 6 or 7 sounds about right. I made lasagna when I was 11 and cooked other stuff regularly. My parents always stimulated me being self sufficient. And I saw the same happening with my friends.
Oh do you remember like the very first foods you were taught to make?
Mine were cold sandwiches, then the first cooked things were scrambled eggs and grilled cheese.
Yeah, cold sandwiches were probably the first as well. Then maybe boiled eggs, scrambled eggs were not really a thing in the Netherlands back then. After that I helped out with other stuff like boil rice of pasta. And I remember doing some simple groceries alone when I must have been between 11 or 12. But the supermarkets were only 10 minutes away by foot.
Oh yeah boiled eggs!
Which I almost always turned into sandwiches.
Sandwiches power.
Oh yeah, a good sandwich can make my day