I can cook marginally well, but I usually am visiting other people's houses and really hate trying to cook something there.

It's easy though since we're talking about kids that are on the cusp of getting older. I'm kinda magic with teenagers anyway. If you look at kids that age most family members outside their parents either look down on them or want to twenty questions them on things like school. The family member that will just hang out and do something fun without all the baggage is worth a ton to them.