Praise for Parents Forcing Teen Son to Clean and Cook Dinner for the Family

The importance of teaching teens valuable life skills in adolescence has been the focus of heated discussion online after a Reddit user claiming to be a dad detailed the cooking and cleaning schedule they said they have in place for their 16-year-old son.

Training adolescents in life skills has been shown to be of huge benefit not just in preparing for the rigors of adult life but also boosting self confidence.

In a 2011 study conducted by researchers from Iran, 160 students were split into two groups. Half were taught life skills by trained counselors while the others served as a control group.

Afterward, the two groups were brought back together to answer a self-esteem questionnaire. The researchers found those who went through the training enjoyed a significant boost in self-esteem compared with the other group.

However, there are those who believe children and teenagers should be left to enjoy their freedom during these formative years rather than be weighed down by the duties of day-to-day life.

One such skeptic came to the fore in the post shared by Hereisafishingrod, a Reddit user and supposed dad to a teenager who has been made to pull his weight around the house in recent times.

According to the post, his 16-year-old son "makes dinner for the entire family one night a week" and "also cleans his room, does his own laundry and cleans his bathroom."

All of which seemed fine to them until the dad's mother-in-law, the teen's grandmother, came to stay and began criticizing the boy's parents for making him do "so much."

"She said we are stealing what should be 'the carefree years of his childhood,'" the dad wrote. The teen's grandma has even intervened to say she would take up his cleaning duties while she stayed there since his parents were "too lazy" to do it themselves.

However, the Redditor goes on to say that things eventually came to a head while their son was busy preparing dinner in a slow cooker.

Once again, his mother-in-law attempted to intervene and make the dinner herself, reiterating her view that the teen's parents were being "lazy." This time though, according to the dad, his son got "upset" because he had been "excited" at the prospect of cooking for everyone.

The grandmother was subsequently asked to leave the kitchen but spent much of the evening "complaining" about her daughter and his husband and even went as far as calling up other members of the family to complain that they are "terrible lazy parents" who have "robbed" their son of a "happy childhood."

But while the mother-in-law ranted and raved at their actions, for many on social media the parents were doing the right thing to prepare their son for life.

In a comment upvoted 11,000 times, hardpassyo said it was important to "teach more teenage boys how to cook and clean for themselves" and told the parents: "let grandma pout, who cares."

Kevwelch agreed, writing: "Doing these things makes you appreciate when somebody else does them....learning to be a responsible adult...helps you be a responsible adult."

Faisfancy said: "A big part of a happy childhood is learning how to create a happy adulthood" while ScorchieSong noted: "He's going to have to do these things when he moves out anyway, best to learn how while at home."

Elsewhere, Shastakine wrote: "I have a hunch Grandma's got some internalized toxic misogyny that boys shouldn't cook and clean; that's a woman's work."

Slabbeefpunch felt "all teens should be taught this stuff" as "self sufficiency is good for self esteem." They added: "Make sure you also teach him about budgeting and bill paying."

Newsweek has reached out to Hereisafishingrod for comment.