My pre-teen always likes to cook with me. I pulled this out for him to mix the wet ingredients with while I measured out and sifted the dry. While he has always been able to manage this independently with my other hand mixer, I had to help him get the beaters in (not as easy as every other hand mixer I've used), and the lowest speed comes up so fast that there was splatter. Those two things right out of the gate turned us both off. We'll keep using our trusty old, cheap hand mixer.