I hate baking/cooking

[Kleine Hexe]

I hate hate hate baking and cooking with my kids. They of course love it.

You see commercials of moms baking with their kids on TV and the mom is all smiles and joy. Not me.

Not all moms enjoy baking with their children. There, I said it.

[chfriend]

Okay, therapy time. What do you hate about it?

[Arduinna]

If that is all you have to confess you are doing great!

[2shy2post]

My personal testimony as to hating cooking (dishwashing, laundry, etc.) with my kids:

Maybe I can blame it on being an only child, A-type, personality. I like things to just be "done" and as fast as possible. It has taken me a great deal of time to just relax and enjoy the process. Which, honestly, I have to FORCE myself to do. Ultimately, I don't really enjoy cooking withOUT the kids (really, for me it is a means to an end), so I'm sure that contributes to it as well...

anyway, just thought I would comisserate.

[4evermom]

I hate it, too, and so did my mom.

Ds will turn the flour into a fortress, take so long to be willing to actually mix the flour with the liquid (which he has poured into moats), that the liquid gets absorbed into the flour and hardens. It's best, imo, to let the kids cook but have it be their own project that you stay out of if you can handle the potential for waste and mess. I always get invested in the results if I'm cooking and ds is "helping". And I want to get it done in a timely fashion. But, fortunately, ds' interest in helping is usually short lived... if he doesn't see a bowl of flour.

My mom's rule was we could cook, other than at dinner time when she was, and we had to clean up after ourselves. She would be available to answer questions.

[Kleine Hexe]

Originally Posted by chfriend

Okay, therapy time. What do you hate about it?

See below....that's part of it.

Originally Posted by 2shy2post

My personal testimony as to hating cooking (dishwashing, laundry, etc.) with my kids:

It has taken me a great deal of time to just relax and enjoy the process. Which, honestly, I have to FORCE myself to do. Ultimately, I don't really enjoy cooking withOUT the kids (really, for me it is a means to an end), so I'm sure that contributes to it as well...

I don't like the mess. It takes so long.

It's weird. I don't mind a mess from paint, playdough, paper, mud, etc but food mess from baking...ugh.

I bite the bullet and bake with my kids. I take deep breaths....slowly. I survive. I'm getting better....but I still don't like it!

We made bread today. From Laura Ingalls cookbook. Bread that takes all day and counter space. Bread that makes a mess...not the neat-no-mess-bread-machine bread. My kitchen is a mess, I'm tired, and I still have to cook dinner, and make a potluck dish for my meeting tomorrow...which starts at 7:30am and goes all day. My kids are happy and proud of their bread. I should post a pic....

No, my kids won't let me take the bread to the potluck tomorrow. I asked.

[2shy2post]

Okay... and on the line of TV glorifying cooking with kids:

I absolutely DESPISE the commercials for Crispy Rice Treats. Those things are horrible, you make huge amounts of incredibly difficult to clean pots, bowls, & pans. The kids are covered head to toe in *sticky*. THEN on top of everything else, they are always gone in like a day...

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by Kleine Hexe

My kitchen is a mess, I'm tired, and I still have to cook dinner, and make a potluck dish for my meeting tomorrow...which starts at 7:30am and goes all day. My kids are happy and proud of their bread. I should post a pic....

No, my kids won't let me take the bread to the potluck tomorrow. I asked.

This is so funny. It makes me think about a friend who has never ever had any desire whatsoever to have any kind of garden - not even a tomato plant. It's absolutely incomprehensible to me. For that matter, come to think of it, she won't even eat tomatoes - also incomprehensible to me - so maybe I should have said "not even a melon." Heck, I have friends who don't like chocolate. So I guess it's not that all that strange not to enjoy baking with children... - Lillian

[3momkmb]

Originally Posted by Kleine Hexe

I hate hate hate baking and cooking with my kids. They of course love it.

You see commercials of moms baking with their kids on TV and the mom is all smiles and joy. Not me.

Not all moms enjoy baking with their children. There, I said it.

Yup, same here! The good news is that soon they will be able to cook on their own and you will get to stay out of it and have things made for you. Trust me, it's worth it

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by 3momkmb

The good news is that soon they will be able to cook on their own and you will get to stay out of it and have things made for you. Trust me, it's worth it

Y'know, I was thinking the same thing ! I think you should make the most of all this and show them how to make luscious vegetable soups and stews and chilis and spaghetti sauce and salads and...and.. Gee, this could come in awfully handy. - Lillian

[Kleine Hexe]

Here are some pics of the bread.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9487228@N02/?saved=1


Lillian, funny you should mention a garden. DS has been begging me for a garden. Sigh. I suppose I should start a garden with him.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by Kleine Hexe

Lillian, funny you should mention a garden. DS has been begging me for a garden. Sigh. I suppose I should start a garden with him.

It's hard being a parent.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by Kleine Hexe

Here are some pics of the bread.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9487228@N02/?saved=1


Lillian, funny you should mention a garden. DS has been begging me for a garden. Sigh. I suppose I should start a garden with him.

Figures. I had ten 12' beds - four kinds of berries, sunflowers, a bizillion kinds of tomatoes - you name it, I had it. And my son had absolutely no interest.

Beautiful loaf of bread, by the way. Lillian

[bigeyes]

OP, I'm with you. I have one child who is like Pigpen from the Charlie Brown cartoons, which makes me nuts. Flour everywhere!

The other is oppositional and argues about everything, which makes it a challenge to teach anything or get through a single recipe where we actually follow the directions.

I know they need to learn, but I'd like to pay someone else to teach them. :

3 guesses why I don't homeschool.

[melissel]

I'm so right there with you. In fact, I posted this same exact thread on another HSing board where there's a huge emphasis on teaching kids home-oriented things, and all but maybe three of the responders said the exact same thing. However, I do feel it's important enough for me to work through--partly because my mom never taught me to cook (for the same reasons, I'm sure!) and I had to learn every single thing from scratch when I hit college age (and I'm still learning), and partly because they are both so desperate to cook with me. So I've gotten a lot better about setting rules, and explaining that if they don't follow the rules, they will be ousted from the kitchen. For example, the two-year-old may pour the flour in the bowl, but she may not bury the fork in the flour and search for it like buried treasure when I turn my back to check the recipe.

It gets a lot easier as they get older--or at least, for me it did. My five-year-old (formerly known as "the spiller") has become much more careful and thoughtful. Often, I'll put on a show for the little one and only cook with the big one. When the little one spots us, she comes running in. I let her do one thing and send her back out.

That's the extent of it. I figure I have another 15 or so years to share this knowledge!

[Aeress]

shh, don't tell but i hated cooking with my daycare kids but I love cooking with my 3yr old. my 3 yr old isn't messy and loves watching as much as doing, so easy peasy.

[Princess ConsuelaB]

I enjoy cooking with ONE of my kids at a time, when there is no hurry and it's quiet...but I can't- can't- can't STAND trying to cook with them both at the same time: They won't listen, they bounce off each other and are all over the place, they fight for the spot in front of mom...it's just too much

I don't mind the mess so much but it's hard for me to turn my mind off of overdrive...you know, to just. get. this. done! I have to make sure I slow down and there's nothing else that desperately needs to be done. Mostly I try to cook with one kid while the other is fully occupied elsewhere so I can enjoy it...otherwise I'm likely to avoid it altogether.

[bigeyes]

I'm still struggling. I've got one with RAD and everything is a power struggle.

Maybe in a few months I'll have picked up some better strategies for dealing with this. If I had to work a paying job with someone like her for 40 hours a week, I'd quit, honest to God.

But I have to teach her. I grew up with kids who even today have no clue how to cook, and it just blows my mind. You can't send them out into the world without those basic skills, yk? We managed to make brownies the other night and we both survived, so we're making some progress.

But I can't have them both in the kitchen at the same time.

[Mama_Leah]

I love cooking and I make myself enjoy cooking with my kids even though it is really annoying.

Also, I wanted to point out that the commercials that show happy, smiling moms and children cooking together are usually for things like mini-bagel pizza's and pre mixed, pre cut cookies!

[bigeyes]

Originally Posted by Mama_Leah

I love cooking and I make myself enjoy cooking with my kids even though it is really annoying.

Also, I wanted to point out that the commercials that show happy, smiling moms and children cooking together are usually for things like mini-bagel pizza's and pre mixed, pre cut cookies!

Yeah. Good point. None of that pesky measuring and mixing going on to mess up the kitchen.