It always amazes me when something I learned in school for dietetics proves to be true in my own life. It’s not that I doubted the accuracy behind the information- it just feels more real when I experience it myself. For example, I learned in school that it can be beneficial to have your children help you cook dinner using age-appropriate assignments. It is believed that this can increase a child’s willingness to try new foods as well as develop motor skills, boost family bonding, etc. But, as a 20-something, single student with no kids of my own, this info got stored away with a “sure, that makes sense” note.
Later, as a 30-something mother, the idea of getting one of the kids in the kitchen with me on a regular basis just seemed like more work than it was worth. Especially when the kids were younger, and their safety awareness was almost non-existent. Sure, the kids would join me on occasion to bake a batch of cookies or cook a special dinner for a birthday celebration, but nothing more than once a month at best. Bringing the kids into the kitchen meant a lot more mess, a lot more worry about fingers being chopped off or being burned or just in general more chaos.
Luckily, albeit through no effort on my part, my 8-year-old asked out of the blue one night if she could help me cook dinner. There wasn’t anything going on that evening, so I knew I wasn’t pressed for time and told her yes. She grabbed a step stool and proceeded to help me through a variety of tasks such as measuring out ingredients, stirring things on the stove, watching the timer for our dish while it baked and setting the table. I was pleasantly pleased to see us get through the meal prep in a fun and enjoyable manner.
The next night, she asked to help me again. And this time, so did my 6-year-old son! While there was definitely more mess and more chaos adding the littler one to the mix, I couldn’t help but feel it would be worth it in the end. Over the next few weeks, I started teaching my daughter more about cooking and how to read the recipes and about the different spices, etc. And I recognize that now that she is older, the fears around chopping off fingers have slightly diminished!
Sure, there are lots of “Ew, that’s gross!” or “Yuck, I don’t think I’m eating that” and I end up adding an extra half hour to the time needed to make any recipe. But in the end, there have been more bites than before, and it is neat to see them explore how recipes come together and how food changes as we cook it. And most importantly, it has been amazing to see how both kids are more willing to try new foods and recipes.
I was lucky that my oldest has shown an interest in cooking with me, but I hope to encourage my youngest to join as well now that I realize it’s not as terrible as I had built it up in my head. While there are still nights where neither child will touch a certain part of the meal, there are still big victories such as a night recently when my garlic-hating daughter said “Yum!” after taking a big whiff of some garlic-buttered naan she had just helped me make. Baby steps!