If you love to cook and you want to share that love of cooking with your kids, you might have visions in your mind of spending hours mixing and cooking together while you both smile and laugh about how much fun you’re having. But in reality, most times spent in the kitchen with your kids might be more stressful than anything else. Luckily, there are things that you can do to help make these experiences more positive for everyone involved.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to make cooking with kids easier and more enjoyable.
Start With Something Easy
While you might like the idea of making cinnamon rolls from scratch with your little one, a complicated recipe like this that will take a lot of time usually isn’t the best choice when cooking with little ones. Rather, you should try to start with something easy when your kids are young and just getting started in the kitchen.
Ideally, you should try not to cook something that takes too long from start to finish. Especially if your child is already hungry, they might not have the patience to wait too long for their food to be prepared. And when they are helping, recipes are always going to take longer to finish. So if you can start with something like a sandwich or produce with dips, this can help get everyone off on the right foot.
Give Them Something They Can’t Mess Up
When cooking with your kids, it’s going to be helpful to remember that they don’t have any experience with cooking up until this point in their life. So if you’re going to be cooking something together that you really want to turn out well, you should consider carefully what cooking tasks you leave for them.
With little kids, you should try to have them help in a way that they can’t really mess up. This might include handing you ingredients or mixing a few things together. Then, as you get more comfortable in the kitchen together, you can give them slightly more complicated tasks to help with.
Come Into It With The Right Mindset
It’s very easy to get frustrated with kids in the kitchen, especially if they’re having a hard time listening or just making a big mess. But just like you wouldn’t get upset with your grandparents living in assisted living if they aren’t able to do a certain task anymore, you shouldn’t get upset with your kids if you try to give them a task that they aren’t ready for either.
Rather, before you step foot in the kitchen together, try to come in with the right mindset and attitude. If you know beforehand that things will get messy and your kids will make things harder, you may have an easier time remaining calm and just going with the flow.
If you want to cook with your kids but have found it hard to do in the past, consider using the tips mentioned above to find more success in the future.
