6 Reasons To Cook With Your Children – Being Parents
Usually when parents cook, they keep children away from it. They certainly do this out of fear that the child will get hurt. However, there are at least six good reasons why cooking with your child is a good thing.
Having the company of the little ones is always nice. Cooking with them is also a good way to arouse their interest in foods (like vegetables) that they would reject at first glance.
Get them involved, you won’t regret it!
6 reasons to cook with your children
They develop a sense of collaboration
In general, all families prepare their breakfast, lunch and dinner at fixed times. If the family is organized and follows a certain routine, having your children with you in the kitchen to help them teach them a sense of responsibility.
Obviously, since they are children, they will not be able to complete tasks or whole dishes on their own. However, if you keep this little habit in them, they will gain a sense of collaboration as they grow older.
Doing easy and age-appropriate tasks in the kitchen will also make them feel secure and improve their self-esteem.
They learn the value of the organization
Cooking with children is a team effort. If you decide to do this as a family, the ideal is that, like any good team, you communicate and decide together on the daily menu.
When children are very young, parents have to decide, but they can always ask their children’s views on what they want to eat.
Cooking with your children requires order, pounds of patience and liters of respect. Knowing how to dose these ingredients allows you to work while having fun and being in harmony.
Adults can take on essential cooking tasks to keep food in appetizing shape. For their part, children can start by learning to organize food, classify it and put it on the table.
Cooking with your children promotes healthy cohabitation within the family
Sharing meals at the table unites the family. As the saying goes: “a family that eats together, stays together.” This expression can also be extended to the preparation of the dish.
While everyone’s schedules may not necessarily coincide with those of the rest of the family on a daily basis, you will always find an opportunity to cook with your children on weekends or holidays.
Cooking helps children learn to be patient
Many children want it all, quickly and right away when they want it. They undertake almost all of their activities with a lot of energy and this is quite normal. We were all like this when we were little.
The problem is that they often hope that the world will react with the same speed with which they learn.
This impatience can be the source of anger when they are hungry. That’s why helping with the kitchen teaches them that food can’t be prepared with a wave of a magic wand, but that you have to take your time and apply yourself. In this way, they learn that for certain tasks and activities one must be patient.
Cooking stimulates children’s imaginations
Another great thing about cooking is teaching children to see that food is a world full of possibilities and opportunities.
The different types of food, how to prepare and combine them stimulate children’s imaginations. You can thus discover together the richness of the gastronomy of the whole world.
Teach them the difference between fresh and ready-made product
Fruits and vegetables are foods rich in fiber and vitamins. The majority of them provide a wide variety of benefits for a growing child’s body.
It is important to realize that when we eat, our cells are the ones that will eat and absorb the nutrients from our food.
Your best bet is to eat as many raw or semi-cooked fruits and vegetables as possible. Conversely, the products already prepared, although attractive, are not necessarily good for the proper functioning of our body.
Take advantage of this moment of sharing with your child in the kitchen to teach him that certain foods are better for his health than others.