Ah yes, time to make dinner and my favorite place for my son to be is right here, holding his Webkinz stuffed animals and watching TV.
Six years ago I would have judged this scene harshly.
No! My child will be on a stool every night at 5.30, helping me fill his plate with healthy ingredients! And when I have two children? Surely I can find age-appropriate jobs for each of them to do in the kitchen — at the same time!
How much I didn’t know then! I didn’t know that children like to open kitchen drawers and hang on them. I didn’t know that they like to stick both their hands in the back pockets of your jeans and then follow you around the room, stepping on your heels while you try to get dishes out of cupboards. I didn’t know that every time you opened the fridge or pantry for an ingredient, they would spy a favorite food and then beg for it incessantly, losing sight of the fact that we are MAKING DINNER RIGHT NOW!
This was the topic of our Ragú Mom’s The Word on Dinner video this week.
(If you’re reading on a reader or an iPad and can’t see the video above, find it here.)
How do we get our kids to help us in the kitchen? Christine of Boston Mamas will impress you with her story of little Laurel preparing dinner for Mom and Dad. Mindy will make you nod your head when you imagine yourself with six children and how you might assign or not assign them kitchen duties.
While we all want to lighten our loads in the kitchen, it’s tough to figure out how to do that with little kids, isn’t it?
During our latest adventure in pizza making, Scarlett was still interested in playing with flour on a tray, even after her personal serving of pizza dough had gone into the oven. I first told her no, wanting her to go join her brother on the couch, but then channeled my inner preschool teacher and decided that it was a harmless mess and I should just let her enjoy it. (I will be accepting my award for this decision later today.)
Ok, be honest. Do you include or exclude your kids when it’s time to cook dinner?
This video was produced in partnership with Ragú® and Momversation’s Mom’s the Word on Dinner Program. You can find out more about the program and join in on the conversation at the Ragú® Sauce Facebook page.
hmmm…honest answer: most of the time, no.
I try to cook w/my kids frequently, just at other times of day when they are not starving for dinner. (Why is it that they are seemingly STARVING for dinner? They have had snacks. Should not be hungry.) I’m more likely to have them help me in the middle of the day bake a loaf of bread, or help me stir pancake batter in the morning or make a smoothie. Sometimes at dinner prep time I at least have them underfoot (if not actually helping), just b/c I’m the only adult home, but if my husband is also home at the time, I often ask him to play with them in a different room so that I can throw dinner together more efficiently. The big thing we’re battling in our house is the “Pavlov’s dogs” syndrome when we walk in the door from work. We arrive at 6, try to have food on the table by 6:30, but the SECOND we walk in, they want “snitches” (that’s what we call them in our household) — something to tide them over. I’m trying to curb the habit b/c it ruins their appetites for dinner if they eat too much beforehand. (And for anyone who’s wondering, this is a total habit thing, not a hunger thing. They have had snacks, and they don’t display this behavior on weekends. It’s something about us walking in from work that triggers it.)
Not yet – they’re only 14 months old. But I want to! All of the magazines make it seem so cozy and peaceful. This reality check brought to you by Rookie Moms…
Umm…I let my 7 yr old stir things. Sometimes.
I did try to let her help me out a little before…she’s a picky eater so I’ve done every hands-on food activity EVER…but she’s more annoying b/c she doesn’t stir fast enough or slow enough…or she doesn’t stay where I put her, and she gets dangerously close to falling into the burner…or tipping the pot off the stove onto her 3 yr old sister. No…I’m not hip when it comes to this kind of thing. I think I was 9 or 10 when I started helping, and I prefer that age. They’re taller & less likely to have their eyebrows singed off.
I try not to with dinner – if it’s not something I can make at nap time and just toss in the oven later, I probably don’t make it for dinner. But my just barely 2-year-old LOVES to help in the kitchen – he pulls up a chair and “helps” stir, or put shredded cheese in things. Mostly I cook, and try to find things for him to do. Like today, where his super important job was to put a tiny bit of cheese on his quesadilla, and then he spent the rest of the time eating cheese and tortillas. It’s fine. He eats everything within reach on the counter, and it’s all going to end up on his plate anyway. So he eats more food when he helps. Cool with me.
Sometimes we just stay at the counter (he stands on a chair) and eat lunch there. For some reason THAT prompts more eating, too. New fun place to eat.
It’s definitely a challenge, though, finding something he can “help” do.
Too bad there’s not an edit b/c I’ll add: Breakfast is different, and much easier for them to help with…as is BAKING time. Measuring & standing there while the mixer goes feels much less catastrophic! Dinner is usually something that doesn’t come from a recipe (or not the “1 cup of flour” kind anyway)…and there’s a lot more CONSTANT heat involved!
When Holden was a toddler, I often had him “helping” me with meal prep: tearing lettuce, dumping spices, eating flour off of a surface (?!) but now that there are two of them, I prefer to have them out of the way so I can speed-cook dinner.
I love when they can help me individually with a baking or brunch project but together? It just tries my patience.
I love getting the kids in the kitchen and now that they’re 11 and 14 they can really help (but they’re often too busy). We have some great ideas for cooking with kids on Kitchen Explorers at PBS, including this week’s soft pretzels: http://www.pbs.org/parents/kitchenexplorers/2011/03/15/make-soft-pretzels-and-win-gourmet-pretzels/
OK, I love this picture of Scarlett. So cute. And I won’t go into all the sensory exploration benefit blah blah blah since you already know about that. Gold star for you today.
As a new mom, I was rather intimidated by the potential mess and headache of letting my child in the kitchen when I was trying to just get a meal out. Then I realized that they wanted to be there with me.
When they were super young, we brought their wooden kitchen toys into one drawer and cabinet for them – this got them in the kitchen with me while they “cooked” by my side.
As they got older and more capable of handling simple tasks, I’ve included their help in really “making” dinner – they set the table, ask for everyone’s drink orders, rinse fruit or veggies, prepare salads, push buttons on the mixer, put ingredients into the food processor, etc. My son who LOVES math, gets so excited about baking because all the measuring.
I’m a busy full-time working mom so I really appreciate this extra time with them.
When my daughter was a toddler, we introduced her to the kitchen and cooking slowly. Whether its was helping us mix or adding in an ingredient that was pre-measured, we made sure it wouldn’t stress anyone. It was a fun, family experience that made us all closer. (Note: we also made sure that cleaning up was always part of the cooking!)
Now she is 5-yr-old and helps with the cooking about 4x per week. We pick focused steps – either ones she can do while I do something else nearby or ones we accomplish together. She can mix very well, rinse, cut things with a spoon, sprinkle cheese & tons of other things. It takes very little time to find a way for her to help (especially if I plan ahead for it) and it makes a world of difference to her.
Cooking/baking is also something she asks to do for fun now, we have several children’s cookbooks & she took a kid’s cooking class at our Rec center when she was 3&4 (taught her a lot of kitchen etiquette & good recipes). We enjoy finding new healthy recipes together!
One of her chores is setting the table, she understands math and measuring (even some fractions!), and the best benefit is that she tells us about her day & thoughts- a trend I’m hoping will continue when she hits her teens!!
When my son was a bub, I put him in a layback high chair in the kitchen while I cooked dinner and talked through what I was doing. Somewhere along the way, witching (arsenic) hour started happening at meal-time and I discovered the quickest way for him to mellow out was turning on the TV (oh how I love In the Night Garden at that time – nice and mellow). He still wanders into the kitchen. I pick him up show him everything I’m making, then plonk him back in front of the TV (never thought I’d do that!).
I do try to get him more involved in baking in the afternoon sometimes, when everyone’s a bit calmer. He’s only 2 (and bub is 5 months) so I’ve got plenty of time to get them more involved…
Thanks again for keeping it real and making us real Mums feel better about not following the picture-perfect ideals.
Include! It totally keeps them busy until my husband walks in the door. As soon as he’s available to take them, I order everybody out of the kitchen. Making them help cuts down on my end of the day guilt about too much tv.
When they were little, they used to help a lot. Now (8 & 6) they mostly have better things to do. They do help set the table sometimes, and once in a while they’ll jump in, but part of the downside to all that early take-them-to-the-farmers market, get the kids-in-the kitchen happiness is that they got and now they’re over it. Most of the time, they are not that impressed. Unless there’s machinery involved!
My kids are always eager to “help” me in the kitchen, but since it takes longer to prepare meals when they’re involved, I try to designate and plan out the days they help out with dinner. Every month or so I let them plan a meal they’d like to make and they love it! They especially love getting the chance to wear their chef’s hats and aprons and seeing their work in the finished product. I do have to admit having my kids help me prepare meals gives me the chance to sneak in some lessons about nutrition and help them develop math, science, and reading skills as they use measuring devices and follow directions for the recipe we’re making. I find that they tend to try more foods when they help me make meals and are also more inclined to eat fruits and vegetables when they get to experiment with them and make their own creations. My kids are biracial- half Mexican, half Caucasian- so when I make healthy versions of my mom’s traditional Mexican recipes, cooking with them means not only fostering healthy eating habits, but also preserving family traditions.
Like so many other successful activities SO much depends on DD’s mood. There are days when she will gladly help me make a complicated hour-long gourmet recipe… and other days when waiting for a box of organic mac ‘n cheese to cook is tantrum city. Most days she’ll help me “chop-chop” and pour things, and when she gets bored she’ll pull all of my tupperware out of the cabinets and then chase the dog around for a while. Whatever works, right?
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