Cooking for the family can be a tedious task if you have a kitchen like mine. It is SMALL. It doesn’t take long before the counters are cluttered and there’s no room to move around and put things down. Often times more ends up on the floor than in the pot.
It is tempting then to keep our little monkey, OLM, out of the kitchen when dinner is being prepared. Time is precious. Why waste it on cleaning up when you don’t have to? Right? Well…I suppose that sometimes true but it would be nice to get some help and to enjoy cooking more. Letting go of the mess isn’t so hard when squeals of delight are heard when the eggs are cracked in just the right way. Or is that me? Anyway…
Not letting kids in the kitchen to help with meal preparation also has a downside. Not only do they lose out on the fun that can be had and time with their parents but important life skills are not being developed. I hope that when OLM is all growed up he’ll be comfortable in the kitchen and want to prepare healthy meals for himself and his own family one day.
Cooking with Kids: 5 rules that make it fun (and manageable for parents)
What follows is a video “Cooking With Parents”, a manifesto of sorts from children to parents. It’s pretty darn cute! In it you’ll learn the five rules that can bring fun back into cooking – but more importantly bring kids back into the kitchen. Or in our case, when we do prepare meals together we use the extended kitchen work area that is the dining room table in order to control the mess.
What’s your favourite rule? #5 is a good one!
Letting go of control in the kitchen
The five rules are simple but important if you want to have more fun in the kitchen. Comments like “Don’t touch that, it’s hot!” and “Follow the recipe!” is something most parents have heard themselves say at some point. But instead of being a place run by rules and control issues, the kitchen should be a place for coming together – without fear of mess and scolding. So we’ll give it a whirl. We’ll continue to use the dining room table for baking and such but I’m going to let go of control and embrace the mess in the kitchen.
After all, how much damage can really be done in a kitchen as small as ours?
If you agree please help spread the word by sharing the tweet below.
[Tweet “Let go of control and embrace the mess. #CookingwithKids in the kitchen can be fun! @IKEACanada”]
Let them in the Kitchen
With so much time spent cooking every day, why not use it for being together? Because if you think about it from a kid’s perspective, the kitchen could actually be the funnest room of all.
This was a sponsored post from IKEA.
IKEA believes that children are the most important people in the world, and that there is a lot to learn by listening to them. So we think it’s time to let kids into the kitchen. Letting them in for real. It’s time for cooking with parents.
Follow IKEA on Twitter and Facebook and follow with the hashtag #CookingwithParents and #CookingwithKids
For recipe ideas go to the IKEA website.
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