Many of us baked with our mums and grandmas when we were kids. We loved getting messy melting chocolate and licking cake bowls, and you might have looked forward to doing the same with your children one day. There are many advantages to spending time together in the kitchen. Cooking and baking together can help you to bond and encourage good habits for later life. It can improve your diets and make your kids far less likely to be fussy eaters. Of course, it’s also just good fun. But cooking and baking with your children isn’t always easy. If your kitchen is very stylish and tidy, you might not be comfortable welcoming the kids in, and they might feel on edge when they are in there. It might not be a practical space for kids if it was designed with an adult in mind, and you might need to make some changes.
Build a More Open Space
If your kitchen is small and crowded, it will be hard for children to feel involved, and hard for you to keep them safe and entertained. If possible, remove unnecessary furniture and clutter to create more space. Another great option can be knocking through to create an open plan living space. This way, your kitchen is very much a part of your daily life, and your kids can come and go into the kitchen area as they please. This can make the kitchen more welcoming and give you more space to add family-friendly seating and accessories.
Make Sure It Is Hardwearing and Easy to Clean
Your kids won’t feel comfortable and free to explore their culinary creativity if you are always standing over them making sure they can’t make mistakes or mess. If you want them to grow in confidence in the kitchen, you must allow them a little freedom as soon as they are old enough. Letting them do things for themselves often comes with mistakes and mess, so create a hardwearing, easy to clean kitchen and you won’t mind as much. Install high-quality durable worktops and surfaces from granitetransformations.co.uk, an easy to wipe floor and tiles, and make sure you’ve got everything that you need to wipe down efficiently.
Make it Interesting
If your kitchen is clean, tidy, and minimalist, your kids won’t ever feel as though it is their domain. If style is very important to you, keep your aesthetic, but create a kid’s corner or zone where they can add some of their artwork and gadgets and add some color. Welcoming in houseplants, painting the walls with more colorful shades, and adding a chalkboard wall can work really well.
Be Practical
If you want to spend time in the kitchen with your children, you need to make sure it’s suitable and safe for them. Keep the things that they use a lot, as well as their cups, bowls, and tableware, in a low drawer or cupboard so that they can reach themselves, and make sure anything that might be dangerous is kept out of reach and secure.
There’s no better way to spend a rainy afternoon at home than baking cakes and enjoying time with your family. So, make sure you’ve got a kitchen that makes it possible.
