There’s a common piece of advice that gets doled out by kid food influencers and nutrition professionals that supposedly helps with ‘fussy’ eating: get them involved in the kitchen!
I’m fairly certain I have given this advice on more than one occasion and if you’ve ever heard me say something to that effect, I sincerely apologise. I did not know what I was talking about.
Once upon a time, my sweet toddler would happily pull the stems off of mushrooms or ‘chop’ a strawberry with a kid-safe knife. Nowadays he’s more likely to try and stab me with it (only half joking, but I don’t let him near the knives jic).
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The point is, this type of advice is all very well and good if you have the kind of lifestyle that supports it. The kind whereby you can spend an extra ten minutes fucking about with kid-safe knives or cleaning up pancake batter off your walls. It’s also great if you have a child who is interested in helping out.
I do not have one of those children.
And not only is this kind of advice really annoying. I’m not actually sure it translates into kids trying or liking new foods. When A was younger and more willing to ‘help’ he might have a bite of whatever we were preparing, but let me tell you, there’s no fucking way he would countenance a mushroom now.
So while I’m down on the idea that kids should ‘help’ in order to make them more compliant eaters, I am very much in favour of making foodwork visible.
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