Kitchen Principles Continued

Yesterday, I introduced the idea of having a principle-based kitchen. Oh, I know, sounds a little cheesy... and since cheese is one of our regular proteins, yes, our kitchen is, in fact, cheesy, because we store what we eat and eat what we store (the first kitchen principle).

Today's kitchen principle is going to be a hard-sell... I know because I have a hard time selling myself on it! It is one thing to embrace a concept and accept it as wise, while it is a whole 'nother thing to actually live by it.

"Involve the children as much as possible in the planning, preparing, and clean-up."

I determined to make this a principle in my home, because I personally didn't know a durn thing about running a kitchen and have had to learn by trial and LOTS of errors. Now, I don't blame my mom for not teaching me -- I blame the circumstances. She wasn't able to focus her efforts on much more than making enough money to pay the rent! These days, more children are born into single-mom households than are born to married moms, let alone full-time moms, so I'm confident these circumstances that left me so ignorant and naive are getting perpetuated across our nation. Fear not, fellow clueless mamas! If I could figure it out, so can you! And you might figure out better things than me, in which case, I do hope you'll share! And in an effort *not* to perpetuate the ignorance through another generation, I have developed the principle stated above.

My oldest child is 12 and my youngest is almost 20 months, as I type this. Obviously, there are wide and varied degrees of helpfulness! The oldest can prepare an entire meal with minimal help required. He and I really enjoy working together in the kitchen, so sometimes he ends up with more help than he really needs! I love that we've developed this fun element of our relationship!

My youngest can hold a spatula and sing into it like a microphone! She also gives her opinions on what we should make for lunch.

And all the children have specific daily chores to complete to help the kitchen run smoothly and a little cleaner than it would be otherwise. Hopefully they're learning something as they slave away, and they won't feel like the dunce I saw in my own kitchen mirror when I first moved away from home!