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.

Brenda Janschek - Little Chefs

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.

Brenda Janschek - Little Chefs
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.”

Brenda Janschek - Little Chefs

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.
Brenda Janschek - Little Chefs

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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Your thoughts on this post

14 Comments   

    • 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!

    • Brenda Janschek

      The hurricane will pass and become a help if you just persist Emma. Great to hear about your older ones helping out : )

  1. 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.

  2. 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 🙂

  3. 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!

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