10 and 12-year-old siblings get even with dad who won't let them cook unsupervised: '[We] went to the kitchen to watch what he was going to do'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 3, 2025 5:00 PM EST

These siblings are following their Dad's cooking rules to a T! Too bad he won't reap any of the delicious cooking benefits of it, since these kids aren't technically allowed to make food while unsupervised… 

Learning to cook is truly one of the nicest things you can do for both yourself and others. The earlier you start cooking, the more effortless it'll become over time. There's so much to learn: every ingredient cooks differently, for example. You can put an onion in a pot and walk away for a while before it's cooked to a golden brown, but if you try that with herbs, you'll be staring down a crispy black mess burnt into your pan. Meats don't need to be flipped over and over again during cooking (if you want them to be juicy and tender, that is), but a rookie mistake is flipping that steak every 3 minutes to make sure it hasn't been burnt. 

But before you get to any of that, as a child, you can do things that don't involve heat, like chopping up vegetables with safety knives, measuring out some sugar or milk, or even just giving your parents a helping hand with the dishes! If your parents are patient enough to teach you the very basics, you'll be well-equipped to cook any dish you want later in life… However, that doesn't stop parents from worrying about their kids getting burned or starting a fire while they're cooking, and it's understandable why they'd keep a close eye on them. 

Now, this Dad had a rule about his children's cooking, which was that they shouldn't be doing so unsupervised. That's totally reasonable, but his kids were getting a little frustrated by the restrictiveness of this when he wasn't around. That's why we keep the pantry stocked, folks! At least let these kids have some ramen noodles or soup or something! 

Check out the full story below and see if you side with these crafty siblings, or with their Dad. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10582487808
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    I've been thinking about posting this story for a while, and just decided to commit. It brings a smile to my face, so here goes. When my brother and I were younger (10 f, 12 m), our parents had a rule that, other than using the microwave, we could not cook without a parent
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    present. We can prep what we wanted to cook, but we were not to so much as touch the stove or oven. We tried it once, and got fussed at; that's all it took. One summer, he and I wanted to make home fries, but our mother was
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    at work, and our father had just stepped out to do errands. "I wanna make home fries." "Wait a minute, Pardon, Mom and Dad said we couldn't cook when they're not here!" (Now, let me interject with a little context about me. I was a smart alec kid, and it got
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    me in trouble often. So the inner workings of my mind on this day were bent towards mischief.) "They didn't say we couldn't cut it up, though..." WonderTwin Malicious Compliance, Activate! We then went to work, and peeled, cut up,
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    and seasoned the potatoes before putting them in a bowl, covering the bowl with foil and placing it in the fridge. My brother and I looked at each other and said "Wouldn't it be funny if Dad came home and ate raw potatoes but said they were good even
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    though they were Raw?" (fow for a little more context, my dad was Notorious for going into the refrigerator and eating whatever food he felt like eating, regardless of whose it was.) We laughed hysterically at the thought for about 10 minutes before going
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    back to play Sega. About 2 hours go by and then my dad came home. As expected, he went to the refrigerator and pulled out the bowl of raw potatoes. We heard the rustle of the foil and immediately went to the kitchen to watch what he
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    was going to do. He ate a potato and said "Oh! this is raw! It tastes good, though...but why didn't you cook it?" We reminded him that he said we couldn't cook if there wasn't a parent in the house. He chuckled, and got out the skillet. That rule didn't last much
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    longer in the house, and he began teaching us how to cook more.
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    koichita Your dad sounds wise and funny, you're lucky to have him.
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    ferritecore I was not allowed to cook on the stove so I made tater tot's on the mr coffee pot warmer
    via u/ferritecore
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    krakatoa83 I ate raw potatoes all the time when I was a kid. Peel, salt, bite, repeat
    via u/krakatoa83

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family drama cooking kids family food children
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