Get Kids Cooking
Do your kids complain about what you serve up for dinner? If you’re a mom, you’ll be all too familiar with the pre-dinner begging that has to be endured as you frantically try to get it ready as fast as possible – and you’ll also know how hard it is to get them to eat enough fruit and vegetables. Before you throw in the towel and hand over money for the local burger joint – why not encourage older children and teenagers to do the cooking for a change? Here’s how to get them interested…
Getting them their own special cooking equipment will add a sense of novelty to the whole experience. If your son or daughter has spent hours at StonefryingPANS.com choosing the best dish for creating their culinary masterpiece – they will be much more keen to give cooking a serious go. A fun apron will protect their clothes and help them to move into ‘chef’ mode – and if your kid really wants to look the part, why not add a chef’s hat? They don’t cost much and can make being in the kitchen more fun.
Let your kids choose what they’re going to cook. Get your cookery books out so that they can have a read through for some inspiration, and show them how and where to find good recipes online. There are some sites, like this one, that allow you to enter the ingredients you want to use into a search box – and then you’re given a range of meal options. Allowing your children to decide what’s on the menu will mean that they feel in control – and that’s a feeling that isn’t always encouraged by parents, teachers and other adults in their lives. However, if they don’t learn how to take control as they’re growing up – how will they manage as adults? They’ll respect you more as a parent for allowing a little leeway, so go on, loosen the apron strings a little!
Show them how to grow fruit and vegetables in your garden. If you don’t have a garden, invest in some window boxes. If young people are involved with planting, growing and picking fruit and vegetables in their own homes, they will be much more likely to want to use them in their own cooking and to want to share their efforts with family and friends.
Allow them to make mistakes as they learn to cook. No one ever gets it right first time, so keep quiet if they burn things, drop the eggs or you end up having to cook something else at the last minute. When your kids do get a meal, or even just a particular cooking technique right for the first time – offer plenty of praise to show that you appreciate their efforts.
Getting kids into the kitchen to cook rather than raid the cupboards isn’t always easy, but a crafty plan like this might just be your ticket to an easier life! If you’d like to keep up the momentum, find out here about how you can get them to do the chores too – aaaand relax!