Are you a control freak? Here’s one simple test: invite your kid to cook in your kitchen.
If you just died a little inside, then I guess we know the answer to that! Sometimes it sucks to be a kid in the kitchen. When we unclench enough to let them participate, usually we relegate them to the dull jobs… loading the dishwasher, clearing the table, or using the potato peeler.
“Cooking With Parents” is a manifesto from children to parents. It presents five rules that can bring fun back into cooking – but more importantly bring kids back into the kitchen, so we don’t have to keep them out of an important part of learning to live as self-sufficient adults.
“Don’t touch that, it’s hot!” and “Follow the recipe!” is something most of us have yelled out. Instead of being a place run by rules, the kitchen should be a place for coming together – without fear of mess and scolding.
IKEA’s Life At Home Report finds that nearly half of all parents feel a lack of time to play with their children. Naturally, most of us feel guilty about this. Most children lack basic food knowledge and cooking skills, simply because parents fear the mess and stress that comes from letting them into the kitchen.
With so much time spent cooking every day, why shouldn’t you use it for being together? Loosen up and find more recipes where you can “wing it,” adding ingredients to taste. Stop worrying about stuff falling on the floor and smears on the counter. Because if you think about it from a kid’s perspective, the kitchen could actually be the “funnest room of all.”
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, and Ikea does too.
Let them in for real.
It’s time to spend more time letting kids cook with parents. Who knows? The results might just be delicious.
