Make their own Breakfast ideas

[alysee]

With older kids(12, 10.5, 9) and a new baby on the way, I really do need to lighten my load. I am hoping that the kids will fend for themselves(and possibly help the 4yo!) Make breakfast. My kids hate yogurt and applesauce. That's the only caveat. 

Here are some ideas I have thought of:

1. Bagels/English Muffins w Cream Cheese or PB&J

2. Smoothies

3. Oatmeal Packets

4. Muffins(from freezer), milk & fruit

5. Cheerios & milk

Am I missing anything? 

Edited August 2, 2022 by alysee

[HomeAgain]

Overnight oats or chia pudding maybe?

I used to do make-ahead breakfasts: waffles, pancakes, tamales, and breakfast burritos in the freezer.  DS got old enough to use the waffle iron comfortably so I don't worry about that now, but we still do tamales and burritos ahead of time.

[Elizabeth86]

That’s perfect lol. I’m also pregnant and we are just surviving on cereal.

[whitestavern]

Hard boiled eggs. 

[Drama Llama]

Any kind of sandwich my kids will eat for lunch they’ll eat for breakfast.  Turkey and cheese, for example.

Whole grain toaster waffles are a staple here.  Nut/seed butter if it’s a weekday, Nutella on the weekend.

Bagel with cream cheese or hummus or nut/seed butter.

Rice and beans 

“Egg muffins” (basically egg cheese and mix ins baked in a muffin cup), and baked oatmeal in muffin cups are two things that are easy for kids to cook on a weekend with Dad and eat for a few days.

I will also say that for us every man for yourself does not work for breakfast.  You get a set of dirty dishes for each food preparation, no clarity on who was supposed to put the milk away (so they didn’t) or wipe up the crumbs.  What worked better was a rotation of each kid above a certain age having a day to make and clean up for everyone.

[KungFuPanda]

Watch some of those freezer meal prep videos on YouTube. Then have the kids prep a batch of egg muffin sandwiches or breakfast burritos or pancakes to get them through the weekdays. It’s quick and easy to do.
 

I have a kid who literally cannot walk and has muscle weakness due to muscular dystrophy and he can do his own freezer meal prep. Most recently he’s done bagel pizzas, bean burritos, and breaded chicken strips. He’s in a bit of a rut but he preps what he likes and doesn’t complain about his own prepped meals. 

[history-fan]

Breakfast sandwiches you can make ahead and freeze.https://natashaskitchen.com/freezer-breakfast-sandwiches/

[cjzimmer1]

granola bars/nutrigrain bars

fruit

 

I'm not a morning person.  I've never made breakfast for my kids and yet they've all survived.  by 4 years old, they all could grab a banana and a bar at the very least.

[Spryte]

Breakfast is serve yourself here. We started young, and I would often make a cute construction paper “menu” with a corny knock knock joke for them to find and a project idea to do in the morning,

The menus looked a lot like the ideas above, but I included dinner leftovers and a few other things. Breakfast food here is not limited to “breakfast foods” so lots of savory stuff. One kid did baked potatoes in the microwave with baked beans on top pretty often. Anything they would eat for lunch or dinner was fair game.

[Soror]

yogurt + granola and fruit

[Katy]

Precooking a dutch baby/german pancake.

Precooking baked oatmeal 

Frozen French Toast Sticks (my kids like the cinnamon ones from Walmart better than the name brand).

[lmrich]

Having your kids help you make freezer breakfast is the best way to get them to use the items. Set aside a Sunday afternoon and make waffles, breakfast sandwiches, lunchables, French toast sticks... it will be a fun thing to do together and will save you $$ and time

 

[Clarita]

1 hour ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I'm not a morning person.  I've never made breakfast for my kids and yet they've all survived.  by 4 years old, they all could grab a banana and a bar at the very least.

Me neither. 

My 5 and 4 year old make their own breakfast. I have a snack bar set up in my pantry with the granola bars, dried fruit, bobos, etc. They have access to fruit and a bottom shelf of the fridge if we buy yogurt or apple sauce stuff. I've seen people keep a small container of milk for little kids but my kids are happy with just water. Sometimes if I've bought or made some special pastry then I have a small container that I put those in for them for breakfast.

Is it a bit messy in my kitchen, yes. I do tell them how to clean up after themselves, but they currently can't open the dishwasher and make that happen so I have a spot in the kitchen for them to put their dirty things. They can wipe up their messes and have the tools to do so, but it's not perfect after they do it either.

[sweet2ndchance]

My kids had similar age spacing as yours. At 12, 10 and 9, my kids were making breakfast for themselves and their younger siblings who were about 5 and 3 at the time.

Can your 12yo cook? My kids were allowed to cook semi-supervised at that point. (I had to be awake and aware they were cooking but I didn't need to be in the kitchen directly supervising at that point. They only asked me to come in the kitchen with them if they had a question) By 12, they could cook scrambled eggs on the stove, heat soup, make mac and cheese from a box, make pancakes from a mix, make biscuits from a can or frozen, put raw ingredients in the crockpot in the morning for dinner that evening. My oldest daughter loved to bake at that age. She would make cupcakes and muffins and such from a mix. She could make cake from a mix or cookies from scratch also.

Your 4yo could be taught to make simple sandwiches like bologna or ham. They may still need help spreading with something like PB and J. They can help portion snacks or veggies. If you portion some cereal in little baggies and get a little jug or box of milk just for them (just refill from the big container each night) they can even make their own bowl of cereal in the morning.

Both my boys and my girls were taught to cook starting around age 10. By 13 or so, they had an assigned night of the week to make dinner for the family, again only semi-supervised. Or if they were getting hungry and I wasn't ready to make dinner yet, they would ask if they could start making dinner. Now might be a good time to start teaching them to be more self-sufficient in the kitchen so they can be a big help to you when the baby comes. 

[sweet2ndchance]

1 minute ago, Clarita said:

Is it a bit messy in my kitchen, yes. I do tell them how to clean up after themselves, but they currently can't open the dishwasher and make that happen so I have a spot in the kitchen for them to put their dirty things. They can wipe up their messes and have the tools to do so, but it's not perfect after they do it either.

This. My kitchen will never make the cover of a magazine. It's definitely kid cleaned but I think the life skills they learned were worth the less than perfectly clean kitchen. All of my grown kids and older teens can cook for themselves if necessary.

[Drama Llama]

I'm a big believer in teaching kids to cook, and to have some independence.  But, I'm also going to say that it's one of those things that's more work before it's less work.  Helping your kid make breakfast burritos to freeze is more work than making breakfast burritos fo freeze the first half dozen times or so.  

So, while I love all these suggestions for kid cooking, I'm not sure that either late in the third trimester or when you're adjusting to a newborn is the time to put them into practice.  If you're earlier in the pregnancy, feeling good and have time to teach cooking great!  But otherwise, a year of cheese sandwiches, peanut butter toast, and cheerios with milk might be just what is needed.  

[Condessa]

My 8 to 13 year old kids regularly cook themselves eggs for breakfast.  

We'll also do brown rice for breakfast (I put it in the rice cooker the night before, they eat it with brown sugar and milk in the morning).  Or rice pudding in the rice cooker overnight, but that one is a little more work.

[sweet2ndchance]

My 9yo just reminded me, he makes his own tuna salad for lunch sometimes. I keep mayo and dill pickle relish in squeezable bottles around and he can open and drain a can of tuna, put mayo and relish with the tuna in a bowl and mix it up with a fork. Then he either makes a sandwich or just eats it with crackers. When he was younger (around 6 or so) I kept the tuna in packets around that doesn't need to be drained. They were easier for him to manage than the cans when he was younger. He loves tuna fish and I actually have to ration how much he can have but my (youngest) kiddo might just be a weirdo in that respect. 😛 

Grilled cheese or quesadillas are either breakfast or lunch around here. You can put a (microwaved "heat and eat") sausage patty and scrambled egg if you want in the grilled cheese at breakfast and it's like a breakfast toaster at Sonic. Serve with over baked tater tots or tater rounds. My 12 year olds were capable of all that by themselves.

Kids are capable of so much when it comes to making their own food if you just let them and encourage them to try. Of course you aren't going to change things overnight if you haven't been training them to make their own food since they were little. But the mishaps and messes along the way are well worth the eventual goal of kids who are self sufficient in the kitchen.

[alysee]

2 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

My kids had similar age spacing as yours. At 12, 10 and 9, my kids were making breakfast for themselves and their younger siblings who were about 5 and 3 at the time.

Can your 12yo cook? My kids were allowed to cook semi-supervised at that point. (I had to be awake and aware they were cooking but I didn't need to be in the kitchen directly supervising at that point. They only asked me to come in the kitchen with them if they had a question) By 12, they could cook scrambled eggs on the stove, heat soup, make mac and cheese from a box, make pancakes from a mix, make biscuits from a can or frozen, put raw ingredients in the crockpot in the morning for dinner that evening. My oldest daughter loved to bake at that age. She would make cupcakes and muffins and such from a mix. She could make cake from a mix or cookies from scratch also.

Your 4yo could be taught to make simple sandwiches like bologna or ham. They may still need help spreading with something like PB and J. They can help portion snacks or veggies. If you portion some cereal in little baggies and get a little jug or box of milk just for them (just refill from the big container each night) they can even make their own bowl of cereal in the morning.

Both my boys and my girls were taught to cook starting around age 10. By 13 or so, they had an assigned night of the week to make dinner for the family, again only semi-supervised. Or if they were getting hungry and I wasn't ready to make dinner yet, they would ask if they could start making dinner. Now might be a good time to start teaching them to be more self-sufficient in the kitchen so they can be a big help to you when the baby comes. 

Oh yes, both my 10 and 12yo can cook. I have never expected them to cook but they like making certain things so when they want those they make them, but for breakfast I have always been the first one up so it only made sense that I make breakfast. 

[Clemsondana]

My older has often woken up starving, ever since toddlerhood.  So, I've always kept a shelf or basket with cereals, granola or protein bars, nuts, peanut butter, dried fruit, etc.  We also have fresh fruit - apples, bananas, sometimes berries.  The fridge usually has yogurt, cheese, juice, and milk.  Typically the kids have eaten some combo of those.  They've had phases - for a while, a parfait - yogurt, fruit, topped with granola - was a popular DIY  breakfast.  Sometimes it's smoothies - fruit, milk, and protein powder.  Sometimes I make breakfast burritoes or pancakes/waffles and freeze, or put a week's worth in the fridge.  Sometimes I make a big casserole -  usually sausage, peppers, and onions with a bunch of eggs - and put squares in the fridge to reheat for the week.  Younger has started fixing instant grits.  When younger, I kept jars with single servings of instant oats, dried fruit, and brown sugar that kids could add water to.  They are also welcome to leftovers, but usually they don't want that.  

So...sometimes I fix breakfast, but it's never been a given, and there's always something that they can fix themselves.  Breakfast is definitely the first meal that the kids learn to manage independently.  

[HS Mom in NC]

Yogurt (full fat, high protein)
toast
cooking their own scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles
hardboiled eggs
cheese slices
fresh fruit that doesn't require preparation: grapes, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines
nuts
 

[Elizabeth86]

5 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

granola bars/nutrigrain bars

fruit

 

I'm not a morning person.  I've never made breakfast for my kids and yet they've all survived.  by 4 years old, they all could grab a banana and a bar at the very least.

I love this! Ive got the 5th one on the way and each one teaches me a bit more that it really never needs to be so complicated. Kids are so forgiving and any old thing can be their normal. 🤣

[HS Mom in NC]

6 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

granola bars/nutrigrain bars

fruit

 

I'm not a morning person.  I've never made breakfast for my kids and yet they've all survived.  by 4 years old, they all could grab a banana and a bar at the very least.

Me too.  And I don't even eat breakfast, so my kids were taking care of breakfast for themselves at 4. I specifically bought 1/2 gal. milk so they could pour it themselves. (We only use milk for cereal, so we never needed to buy in bulk.) Did they occasionally spill some ? Yes, but so do I. Spills don't scare me-that's why we have tile/linoleum/hard flooring.   

[alysee]

These are all great ideas!

[Dynamite5]

Cottage cheese

Hash browns

Bananas and peanut butter

Leftovers

Protein balls (you can make a couple of dozen at a time)

Quiche

Scones

Scrambled eggs (can be made in microwave)

Precooked bacon

Banana, Pumpkin, or Zucchini bread

Yogurt parfait 

Quesadillas

Yogurt toast

 

 

[wendyroo]

Ants on a log

Nachos

Baked Oatmeal

Chicken nuggets

Banana Bread/Muffins

[mommyoffive]

I am not a morning person and lots of times I am just not hungry for breakfast.  I haven't made kids breakfast in a years.  I am pretty sure I gave up around kid 3 or 4.  So by the time they were 4-6 years old they were doing things on their own for the most part.  Older siblings would help the younger ones until they could do everything on their own. They mostly prefer normal breakfast things and our most popular thing is cereal.  

Cereal

oatmeal

fruit

yogurt and granola

Waffles or pancakes

toast or bagels

Edited August 3, 2022 by mommyoffive