Kids Cooking Dinner

Let the kids make dinner and count the benefits.

I’m going straight to bullet points because there are too many benefits to miss:

They asked to cook (intitiative).
They planned all day all of the details (evant planning).
If they complain about the food, they can complain to themselves (they didn’t complain)(value of work).
The minute they got home, they started work (no iPads, are they ill?)(determination).
They worked together and delegated tasks (management).
They didn’t ask our opinion (creativity).
They learned how to make Caesar Salad (education).
They aimed to please, they wanted us all to have coffee because they knew how to make it (altruism).
There is one pot of taco soup and 5 or 6 who ordered, how much taco soup can each person have? What if someone wants seconds? (mathematics and science).
One of the patrons asked to, “Make it snappy!” and they did (service industry psychology).

All of the parents were surprised at how seriously they took it all. They also wouldn’t let us help and kicked us out of the kitchen on several occasions. They talked about it all day on our hike and planned, schemed, and worked together to make it all happen. They followed through, they made it happen, they didn’t back down. It almost came to a screeching halt when we didn’t have the right notepad for the waiter to take orders, but once we found a notepad, we saved the evening. A lack of aprons also almost brought down the house, but again they were determined.

We had omelets, grilled cheese sandwiches, taco soup (leftovers from grandma), coffee, tea, wine, fresh bread, spaghetti, and some more grilled cheese sandwiches. They were grilled to order, not burned, and fluffy and creamy. Perfect.

They were happy, serious, and proud. Happy, serious, and proud–when my kids are one of those I’m pretty content, but all three? And we get dinner served? We didn’t complain about dinner either and with this writing today I declare this engraved into my memory. “Welcome to Kids’ Cafe, what would you like to order?”