My little chefs
My husband is completely useless in the kitchen (honey, if you’re reading, it’s just ‘dramatic effect’, ok?).
Perhaps he is just more cunning than I give him credit for, but he really is as useless as a chocolate teapot!
On the other hand, my little helpers, Mr 9 and Miss 7, are more than happy to help out with the cooking. True, it’s a far easier sell when there’s a cake bowl to lick, but Mr 9 is on board whether it’s a savoury or sweet concoction. I call him ‘my little chef’, which prompts him to ask if he can go get a job in a restaurant and start making ‘real’ money. Mmm, child labour … kids have rights too! You have no idea how it warms my heart to see him collecting chicken bones (unprompted) so I can use them for stock.
Miss 7’s ears prick when ‘baking’ is mentioned. She is also very concerned about her memory and requests I feed her more fish (and now chia seeds!).
They even know the ingredients and proportions that go into making a healthy smoothie, muffin, or biscuit. It has now reached the point where they are actually schooling my husband on kitchen basics.
The other day I was greeted with the look of a (more than usually) stunned mullet after asking hubby to separate the egg whites and yolks. The look on his face suggested this was not one of his underhanded excuses, but was a look of genuine bewilderment. He couldn’t have looked more confused if I had asked him to recall something I said two minutes ago.
Now, hubby is no stranger to egg-related incident and controversy, so while this was not a surprise (in a kind of surprising way), it did add an element of humour to the situation.
One person who I knew could help was Mr 9 – “Stand aside, Dad, let me show you how it’s done”. He may have said “Muppet”, but I can’t be sure …
“Make sure you ….”, hubby couldn’t help himself, before Mr 9 interjected with the talk to the hand movement.
“Ah … ah … watch and learn.”
I am so proud of my little chefs. I love knowing that they are well on the way to looking after themselves. And, loving it!
So here’s my tip: resist the temptation to shoo them out of the kitchen in the interest of time. After all, time with your kids is a precious experience, particularly when you are imparting life skills such as cooking, sharing, creating, measuring, and how to best nourish themselves.
You can be sure they’ll never forget it.
If you want to read more about the benefits of having your kids in the kitchen check out my blog “What’s Cooking Kids”
Bren x
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Kristin from Mamacino
I have informed my children that they need to know how to prepare ten healthy meals before they leave home…the fact hey might be expected to leave home one day came as quite a shock to them!
Brenda Janschek
I love that goal you have set them! You might want to provide them with an age cap also so they know you are serious about them leaving one day!
Lisa
very inspiring! Hope that all the ‘hanging around my ankles’ will change into being productive little helpers. bring it on!
Brenda Janschek
Without a doubt Lisa. x
Alisha
So precious and I can not wait until Sam can help Arwen and I ‘cook’ 😉
Emma Fahy Davis
In our house we’re just getting to the stage where the kids are more help than hindrance in the kitchen, altho the littlest one is still a bit of a hurricane!
Brenda Janschek
The hurricane will pass and become a help if you just persist Emma. Great to hear about your older ones helping out : )
jeanie
My older daughter is now of an age where she is learning the hard lesson of cleaning up after herself – but the age gap between the two mean that now I have one teaching the other how to cook, and I am a very benign supervisor.
Brenda Janschek
Sounds like you’ve done a great job there Jeanie, arming your kids with important life skills.
Emily
Oh I LOVE this post – and you are so funny! Your kids are little crackers as well – your hubby doesn’t stand a chance! I am so glad to see that effort and involvement with little kids in the kitchen leads to such great things down the track. It gives me renewed hope for my little Pumpkin. Thanks! Stopping by from Digital Carnival 🙂
Brenda Janschek
Thanks Emily, their dad seriously has NO idea. He’s in charge of pancakes however, not much can go wrong there : )
Katie (@mumabytes)
Wow, your kids are doing so well! Well done you for teaching them fabulous fundamentals at a young age. It’s so good to see how much they enjoy it. 🙂
Brenda Janschek
Thanks so much Katie. My kitchen is no longer my own! But I’m fine with that. Unless hubby steps into it : )
Sonia @ Natural New Age Mum
I totally agree. Cooking healthy meals is a life skill we need to teach our kids. It’s a really high priority around here and I am happy to report at 12 and 14 my kids can cook full meals and happily fend for themselves now. It’s pretty nice having an extra couple of chefs in the house come dinner time!