Children belong in the kitchen
- Mar, 19, 2018
- Adrienne
- Family, Children, food, Health, JOFR, Meal Planning, Obesity, Parenting, Teenagers
- No Comments.

Children belong in the kitchen? ‘RealIy’?, I hear all the moms out there ask, as they imagine the mess and how much longer it will take to prepare dinner. What about the sharp knives and the vegetable peelers and the mess?
I am one of those. If it takes more than 30 minutes to prepare, I would rather not cook it. So why do I say children belong in the kitchen?
Obese children!

I am a volunteer ambassador for the ‘Jamie Oliver Food Revolution’: their goal is to reduce childhood obesity 50% by the year 2030!
England has already banned the sale of energy drinks to children under the age of 16 because of the harm it does to their health.
Sugar tax
South Africa is introducing 11% tax on sugary drinks on April 1, 2018, to become one of only 20 countries to do this. While this may cause some consternation to those of us who are soda drinkers, as this will mean that your average 2l cola will go up by almost R2, it will lead to people buying less sugary drinks for their children. This sugar tax applies to cordials as well as carbonated beverages.https://www.beveragedaily.com/Article/2017/12/20/Sugar-taxes-The-global-picture-in-2017?utm_source=copyright&utm_medium=OnSite&utm_campaign=copyright
This is a step in the right direction to reducing obesity in children.
Children belong in the kitchen
This still hasn’t explained my statement of ‘children belong in the kitchen’.
On your next school run, get your children to count the fast food outlets that you pass on your way from school to home, then let them count the number of restaurants. How long was your journey, and how many did they count?

Now watch for the fast food adverts on TV during their favourite shows. How many were there?
Name that veg!
Here’s a tough one, take them with you on your next vegetable shopping trip. This was probably the worst part about having small children, going to the store with them. The refrains, ‘Can I have’, ‘I want’ and ‘I need’ still echo in my head and my children are all teenagers.
This assignment is for parents and children, so maybe take your partner with. See how many fresh fruits and vegetable you can identify? Obviously the younger they are the less they will be able to name. Parents how many could you name, have you ever tasted them and do you know how to prepare them?
This is why I say children belong in the kitchen. Learning to peel and cut potatoes for mashed potato instead of buying powdered potatoes or ones that come with fried chicken and gravy or as a hash brown on the side of your burger order, will teach them about the vegetable, how to prepare and enjoy it in a way that is healthy and delicious.

Carrot salad, coleslaw, potato salad are easy to make for slightly older children but the younger ones can wash the veg so that they are ready for cooking or peeling.
What do vegies look like?
Having children in the kitchen to learn what vegetables look like in their original state, helps them to learn to identify vegetables as well as fresh herbs used to flavour the cooking. Having them help with the making of those vegetables encourages them to try out their flavours .
Most of my children eat a variety of vegetables that are often unknown to adults. Things like beetroot, eggplant, parsnips and turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, kale, Brussel sprouts, celery, rocket. They know the smell of fresh basil and mint, of coriander and thyme, rosemary and oregano.

The older ones have even been known to request to try such vegetables as calabash and kohlrabi and even a madumba. Not all of the requests have turned out successfully and some are definitely an acquired taste. Edamame beans were a definite ‘no no’
The benefits
Getting children to help in the kitchen also has a few other benefits.
- Quality time, for working mom’s, or even individual children assigned to a different night of the week to help.
- Basic hand washing and food hygiene. A chance for both of you to learn together on how to prepare and store raw foods safely and how to reduce illness and infection.
- Developing the senses, taste, smell and touch. Listening to instructions and reading recipes.
Taking them with to the store and getting them to choose the vegetables required also helps with learning colours and for little ones describing the shapes.
Let children help with meal planning as this will get them excited about the meals ahead. It teaches planning skills. They know what’s for dinner and now can plan what prep is needed to get the meal to the table.
Do your children help in the kitchen? How early do you think it is possible to get them involved?
- accident prevention
- App reviews
- babies in cars
- Books
- Braai
- Bread Recipes
- budget gifts
- Budgeting
- Budgeting in South Africa
- calendar
- Celebrations
- Cellphone safety
- Chanuakah
- Chicken recipes
- Child safety
- Children
- Chrismukah
- Christmas gifts
- Daily budgeting for South Africans
- Debt
- distracted driving
- driver safety
- drowning
- Environmental Issues
- Family
- Family Calendar
- Finance
- food
- Food for toddlers
- Food Myths
- Freedom Day
- frugal gifts
- grocery shopping
- Health
- heat exhaustion
- Heat wave
- Heritage Day
- household management
- I -Plan
- I-cook
- Jewish food
- JOFR
- Johannesburg
- Kosher
- Lockdown
- Managing your household
- Meal Planning
- Meat Recipes
- monthly shopping
- Nurses Day
- Obesity
- online shopping
- Organisation and clean up
- Parenting
- personal finance
- Personal safety
- pets in cars
- Public Holidays
- Quick meals
- Random Ruminating
- Recipes
- Religious holidays
- Reviews
- saving money
- School
- slow cooker
- Slow cooker recipes
- Soup
- South African
- Specifically Jewish
- Summer
- Teenagers
- textbooks
- texting
- Tu B Av
- Uncategorized
- Vegetarian Recipes
- Winter
- Workers Day
- workshop
- Xmas gifts
- November 2023
- October 2022
- August 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- August 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
Leave a Reply