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April 16, 2025 15 mins
Former host of “The Dad Podcast”, Justin Worsham joins us to talk about: Kids don’t learn to cook just by watching parents, study shows.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you still love cooking today? Yeah? It's like, what's
you What kind of thing do you like?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Several? I mean I didn't. I just got into it
maybe ten years ago or something.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Okay, so before that not really. So what we're talking
about is that they did a survey or a study
in Canada.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hi, Justin oh sorry, Justin Watson comes in and he
talks with them introduction.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, I got I. Do you do a couple of weekends?
Shows that you think you're in the big leagues? Evidently
a little big bridge this year.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
You don't even have working head funds. What are you
talking about?

Speaker 4 (00:29):
You know?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fun fact I'm filling in for him on vacation. No
I am not give it.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Give it a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Can you imagine?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh, that would be horrible. He's so awful for so
many people, mostly me anyway. So they did this study
that found that cooking is one of the things, as
like an aptitude for life skills, is one of the
things that a child does not pick up from just watching,
Like you can't just set an example for cooking. Now.

(00:59):
What's interesting is I have seen other research that would
support that for eating habits like kids do pay attention
to what choices you make when you're choosing food to eat.
So if you choose less healthy foods, they will follow suit.
But they don't learn how to cook from just watching.
They have to actually participate in it. They have to
do the thing. And that's why I'm a big fan
of like having like one night a week, especially over

(01:20):
the summer, because my kids will tend to just hang
out in their rooms a lot over the summer. So
at least one night a week I make them cook dinner.
They're not kind of supervised. They still have doors. They
do have doors so far, well, some of them have
gotten close to losing them.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
But is this a thing? How generational is it?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I mean, did you did you watch your parents cook?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Or I mean, pay any attention to what I was?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I was just talking about this with my kids about
how much of a colossal a hole I was as
a child. When my stepmom would clear like she would
make the food, we would come in and sit down,
we would eat the food, and we would just get
up and leave.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
How old were you when your stepmom she.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Came into the picture when I was six? Okay, so
I stayed there until I was eighteen. I moved out
a few months before I turned nineteen. That's when I
moved out of my parents' house six months after I graduated.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
I think every kid gets to the kitchen table, fakes
their way through the family dinner, and then high tails
it back to the room.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I think that's just America.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
But we didn't even like take our dishes to the sink.
It's part of my point, like there was no chores
in that way of doing dishes. Was there an expectation
of it and you just didn't do it or there
was just no expectation, no expectation, Like I got it
on my own and I didn't. Really I totally agree,
but but it's funny like as soon as I moved out,
it took me all of a month living on my own,

(02:42):
and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a jerk,
Like this is not okay. And again, not to speak
ill of my father, rested peace Pops, but like in
that way, he was very chauvinist. Like I know I've
told the story on the show before where I was.
He told me when I was like five or six,
because I wanted something. It's like sounds like you need
a job. And I was campaigning, and one of the
things I offered to do, weirdly enough, was dishes. And

(03:03):
he's like, I got your mom to do the dishes.
You gotta find a job that I.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Already not not wrong, not wrong.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Not wrong. My mom hated using the dishwasher too. It
was more used for like pot storage, than ever to
clean anything. She liked doing everything by hand, still to
this day, does not have a dishwasher in her house.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Well, it doesn't make sense sometimes to use the dishwasher
when you can just wash it by hand.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, but a whole family. You got a family of
four that just had dinner that you prepared everything.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Well, I mean yeah, I mean I like, I'll put
the plates in the dishwasher. But in terms of all
the stuff I used to make dinner, you clean that
as you go my hand.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, I guess that makes sense. I do, I
do pretty much except for pots. I will I will
hand wash a pot. This can't be interesting for anyone.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Were like one quarter like five?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well the way to a skillet, I'll
wash the skillet.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
Talk to me about your skillet. What kind of skillet
do you have?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
I have? I have multiple skillets because my son to
kind of what why this maybe stood stood out to
me as my son loves to cook and he is
he lectures us. I'm already blanking on it. He would
slap me across the face if I allowed it. There's
a word that starts with M that in the in
the cooking world, it's like getting a little char Yes.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Oh yeah, we have a whole thing about that.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
You said that like it came up. You looked like
we had a whole session about his love of mayard.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
You told doctor McGillicutty you would never bring it up again.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
That was really fun for me to be in the
room for.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I don't remember exactly what it is.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, your emotions are remember, because you seem very unhappy.
I feel like we.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
Need to explain it because I don't even know what
it is. Well, why was it a thing? Why are
you shaking your head and not using your word?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Is it dirty?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
No?

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Dirty? How can they are dirty? I don't know? Anyway,
he likes high heat, which has a tendency to ruin
nonstiff hands. If anybody who has a discoverable at home.
So he was like he was new to cooking and
I let him just do whatever he wants in the
kitchen so he can learn. And he's tore up so
many skillets in my house, and so now I'm like,
you can only use the cast iron skillet that is

(05:23):
only that is the only thing you were allowed to
cook on because he made me buy a stainless steel one,
and even that one, it's like if everything sticks to
it and it's just awful, and then he doesn't always
clean it, which drives me nuts.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's the thing with those cast iron you got to be.
Cast iron is pretty bulletproof.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
I mean you could screw it up and then clean it, receipt,
reseason it, and it's very much back. It's those non
sticks that once you break that surface or it's over,
it's yeah, trust me. I have not mentioned the incredible
amount of whatever that is made with is now.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
In your food. Can't do Yeah, it's made.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
With a bunch of I tried to explain that to
my son, but he's sixteen, and so all of the words.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
You believe he's sixteen, isn't it crazy?

Speaker 1 (06:06):
He's seventeen and a few shocking he told me recently.
He told me this yesterday, and I like, looked at
him like, you idiot.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Know.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
He was like, Dad, I have basically like two more
years of school. And I was like what, No, what
are you talking?

Speaker 2 (06:19):
And then I was like, oh, he's shocked by this development.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
And this is again I say this. I said this
about being teenagers. So far it worked out middle school,
middle school. I hate. I hate being a parent of
a middle school kid. Teenagers have not been bad so far,
other than if once you get used to desensitized to
the not listening. But now I'm really finding myself getting excited. Guys.
I'm getting excited about like adult children, really stoked for

(06:42):
when they get to like graduate high school are a
living starts in my mind.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
Your kids to find their wife the way you found
your wife.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Oh yeah, no idea. How much you have you have
struck a chord And there there's a there's been many
a late at night pillow conversation between my wife and
I where there's there's romance on the horizon for my
older son with a young lady that her family is great.
She's a very like just level headed young lady. And
so I'm very I'm very excited about this, and I've

(07:10):
been planning the wedding pretty much. I've never done this,
don't get me wrong.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
What has your son said about this? Wait, let's do
it after the break. I'm dying.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Justin Warshon was Johnny. So we're talking about parenting, let's
discuss this. This is you already planning your kid's wedding.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
So there's a story behind it in that when my
high school drama group was doing School of Rock and
we were touring to like elementary schools and doing the
show when you were when I was in high school,
and after Natalie and I got together and we were
going to get married, each of our parents said to
us separately. My father said, you know what's funny. When

(07:52):
you guys were doing that School of Rock. I noticed
Natalie and I was like, she seems like a nice girl.
That would be a good fit for Justin. And then
Natalie's mom saw me, but her impression to me was like,
he looks so sad and lonely. You bet that was
your move?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Uh, depressed kid?

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, I was just just.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Cheer me up.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
So anyway, so there was there's this girl that uh
my son uh is in choir with and uh they
they had a moment where they were partnered together a
while ago, and I was like, it seems like a nice,
like level headed girl, but I don't want to get involved.
I purposely of like whatever, you know, I never said
anything to him.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
You're not going to steer him towards her.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
No, no, no, no, until he said that there might
be mutual interest between the two parties.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
And how he said it.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
No, he said, I can't. I can't do it without
saying the poor young lady's name, and that's not fair
to her or really whom, to be honest, call her
by the way, I'm already sweating that you're going to
say the exact right name.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
She's not, I'm not. Let's call her Valentina Valentino.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Okay, good, that's good. All right? Yeah, so val he
was like, hey, I think Valentina might like me, and
the excitement that I had to restrain to me. And
then later that night when the kids are all going
to bed, and I got to tell Natalie like like
we were two girls, says. I was like, you're not
gonna believe this, but for a long time I've been
seeing this girl. And I was like, and now, by
what have it happened?

Speaker 4 (09:21):
I totally envisioned you and your wife having those slumber
parties all the time.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
But she doesn't get as excited.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
You're books, are sitting on the couch with your pillows
and you're holding them on your your little top of
coffee or all.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Of it's ride, except for all you're describing is my
side of it.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
She goes full blow, dude, and she's just so, she's like,
he's gonna bang around a little bit first, justin she's
just got to see what he likes out there first,
sitting on the other bed, scratching off.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I don't have time. I've already used all my words today.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Get some milk from for free from these cows. First,
she's scratching.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
And so she literally told me at one point he
doesn't differently than the rest of us, Shannon, It's okay.
At one point you literally told me, she goes, you
have to calm down with this because you can't come
into hot which now I make jokes about it constantly,
like and I even said to him, I was like,
because he has a rule that he can't have people
ride with other kids ride with him unless I've had

(10:16):
a conversation with the parents. And so I was like, Hey,
do you want me to reach out to her parents
so that you can ask her out? And he was like,
I think it's a little soon for that. I was like, oh, okay,
I have to make some calls to cancel venues in
the next eight years. Oh my god, I might have
jumped the gun on this man. I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Do you like the idea of an outdoor wedding?

Speaker 4 (10:37):
So where are we at? We think there's mutual interests.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
There's definitely mutual interest and we're waiting.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
For texting going on.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Oh, definitely lots of texting. Lots of texting that's happening.
And I am again, both of my sons have the nicest,
sweetest young ladies that they one has got a girlfriend.
The younger one's got a girlfriend and she's she's very kind.
I want him to go have dates with her, but
I'm trying to not like he's fourteen. He's thirteen, all right,

(11:05):
but he's been on other dates with other girls where
we picked him up and then he opens the door
for her and then they go sit at like a
separate table at a diner and have their own little.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Thing like, oh my god, helicopter parent for a second,
I just need to talk to Shan for a second.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Turn off your headphones and everything. Should we do?

Speaker 3 (11:23):
You think we should intercept the text messages between Justin
and his kids, just to temper Justin's reaction to his kids, Like, hey, guys, uh,
just you know what I'm saying, like, maybe they should
come to us before they go.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
We're gonna have to learn kids speak like you know,
Finn and the you know, wait, what is that right? Justin? Okay, Justin,
you can come back?

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay back, So you guys are as excited as I am.
Right kind of Oh man, I.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
Feel like you're like ruining your kid's game, probably by
just having this vibe.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, Like here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Well you listen, I think you could puddle pull it
off where you're like whatever, yeah, dad.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Do that?

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Normal?

Speaker 2 (12:04):
What do you just did?

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Do that?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
And I can't try it?

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Whatever?

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Whatever, and listen. You know her name?

Speaker 3 (12:14):
This is also this is also a step far beyond
anything I had this early on in my kid's relationships
with anybody which was name.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
I know her.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I didn't bother with the space.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
You know, just norm Justin's a woman, probably girl's social
security number. He's like me track he had a first
name and found out everything about this girl within six seconds, just.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
The last four exactly. It's a brilliant one.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Listen again, I know there are lots of things.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Have you bought them a home? Yet?

Speaker 1 (12:46):
If I had the down I did make that joke,
though joke. He gets it. He knows me well enough
to know. Boy, there are very few things in my
relationship with my sons and even my family, and like
so much of their life has been me being the
like authoritarian person of like this is how it's gonna go.
We're going to bed at this time, and I don't

(13:07):
know what it is about.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
While you're holding a pillow on your lap, Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
So have you have you had a conversation about sex?

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, yeah, I we talked about that a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
I feel like what I've decided with my sons is
I told them that all of the various items or
I call what I call them bedroom bucket list items,
I go, you could check that off after you hit
twenty five or when you're married. Right, this is not
the time I go right now, at this age. I
said I would encourage you, not because I'm spiritual, but
just because I think it's just better. Honestly, is that,

(13:41):
I said. I understand the curiosity. I said, I would
encourage you to wait until you get married, because I
think that the stronger connection you have with that person,
the better the experiences. I said, but I understand that
there can be some excitement with like a fleing kind
of thing. I know it's not something I've ever experienced,
but I was like, I get that too, I said,
but the big thing for me, you have to be
a gentleman, and the girl drives the boat, so she

(14:03):
decides what is okay and what isn't. And that every
time I've said this to both my sons, every time
they decide to level up the experience. For lack of
a better way of putting it, I go, I think
it's important that you say, hey, like I'm this is
good for me. I'm cool with this, but we don't
have to do this so that you like me like
I don't. I don't need this for me to like
you back, because I feel like young ladies. And I
know I'm being wildly chauvinistic and sexist, but they're my kids,

(14:25):
so I'm gonna do it. I feel like girls in
their teenage years, they start to if they have feelings
for a boy, they feel this pressure to feel like,
these are the things I have to do because he's
a nice guy and I don't want to lose him.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
The girls give the sex to get the love. The
guys give the love to get the sacks.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, yeah, and I don't. I just so and so
far it's worked, like I but both of my I
was a little worried about the younger one, but as
he's grown up, he's he's so sweet and so giving,
like with all of the relationships he's had. He likes
to give him a little. He just wants to love
both of them, like and they're they're not overly. They
don't make out or they're not like overly if well,
my old or something there was there was a comforter. Yeah,

(15:02):
that's what I mean. He likes to cuddle like his
old man.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
But that's that was awful. It's for him and me
justin thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Stick around At the top of the made.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Talk trending my son ever heard of God?

Speaker 4 (15:22):
Like I know, like, oh God, it was awful, so bad.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
I'm still not over it.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Harley riding down the street and never coming back, and
Joseph had a pretty good run.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Sunday No.
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