I made a new invention, my eight year old son says. Want to come see it? I follow him into the kitchen, where he shows me a plate of scrambled egg on toast. He is supervising his toddler sister in cooking Sunday brunch. And now? They are going to eat their creation.
For the last nine years, my children have been keenly interested in cooking. Every time they see me or their father in the kitchen, they beg to help. An affirmative answer leads to a race to tie hair back in pony tails. Wash hands. Don aprons. Plastic knives cut fruit and vegetables. Tiny hands whisk eggs. In the past, my eldest child has supervised kitchen activities. Now that she is absorbed with her brand-new laptop, it is my middle child’s turn to be in charge.
Over the last ten years, my weight has ballooned up and down during the course of three pregnancies. With the birth of each child, the challenge grows to feed them healthy food. For years, my husband threw out rotten food. Fruits and vegetables went bad as tiny people refused to eat them. In my sleep-deprived haze, I often forgot about prepared meals sitting in the refrigerator. How did I solve the food dilemma? By cooking with my children. I found that when I take them grocery shopping, thy are much more likely to eat foods they choose themselves. When we cook as a family, parents and children eat healthy vegetarian meals – and finish the leftovers.
Cooking became a fun activity to fill cold winter days. As my children grew older, they grew in confidence, to the point where my eldest child is able to produce three-course meals on her own – complete with homemade dessert. Do they make messes? Absolutely yes. But with every experience creating food for themselves and family members, each kid grows in confidence and independence.
Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.
