Baking with kids is not a wonderful parenting experience

[helenabonhamfarter]

It's one of those moments you always thought would be a great domestic experience? I mean baking with your delightful children showing them patiently how to knock up delicious morsels. That little girl spinning in her pretty dress sucking on a raspberry in the intro to GBBO comes to mind. You drinking tea whilst gazing and laughing at your gorgeous off spring and then eating the products of your labour together.

But no...

It always ends in a row.
Kids arguing over who is doing what
Flour and sugar all over the floor and surface
The incorrect measurements
The wrong oven temperature
Putting salt in instead of sugar
Disgusting hands and fingernails
Inedible cakes

And then the washing up- that's left. For YOU to do.
But to be honest that probably better if it's going to be done properly.

Big sigh.
Back to school tomorrow

[BestCatMumEver]

Someone at work recently brought in some cupcakes they’d made with their 4 year old. Like fuck was I going to touch those.

[Echobelly]

Yeah, I never had the patience for it. It always ended up with kids being scared of the mixer making loud noises or something, and me going 'Oh FGS, I'll do it!'

[Talipesmum]

I remember baking with mine years ago when they were little; one of them cracked an egg onto the surface and I turned away for a few seconds to get a cloth to wipe it up with. When I looked back he was LICKING THE RAW EGG up like a CAT from the kitchen surface. 😖

[Snugglemonkey]

I love baking with my son. It is v messy, but so is painting, doing pottery, building houses with tiny bricks and cement and all the other things we would be doing if we were not baking. At least with baking, I get cake!

[YesitsBess]

@PileofLogs

Has anybody IRL ever actually used salt instead of sugar? Seems like a thing that only happens in Little Women.

Well once me and my son spent hours making a dessert that involved making domes out of melted chocolate poured on balloons (side note: too hot and they pop and the whole World is covered in chocolate). Ice cream below the chocolate dome, pour hot chocolate fudge sauce onto dome for a “performance dessert” if you will.

Husband at the time was very into smoking and preserving meats, which involves saltpetre (sodium nitrate) which looks exactly like sugar and was stored in the pantry.

Long story short, the chocolate fudge sauce caused our mouths to pucker up like a cats bum hole and everything went in the bin.

[YesitsBess]

Actually it wasn’t saltpetre it was citric acid, for making cordials.

[Minimalme]

When I first did cooking with my eldest son, he was three. I sat him in the bench top so he could stir stuff.

I had my back turned for about 10 seconds and he had thrown six eggs through the serving hatch into the dining room.

When I caught him, he just grabbed a handful of flour and lobbed it at me.

I learnt lessons about child placement and access to ingredients and have avoided this sort of shenanigans since.

And he is now a very responsible 15 year old so came good in the end

[Mumspair1]

@Echobelly

Yeah, I never had the patience for it. It always ended up with kids being scared of the mixer making loud noises or something, and me going 'Oh FGS, I'll do it!'

Yes and the mess is just something that sucked the joy out of it for me. I often did bake with ds though, didn't enjoy it though.

[Tomorrowisalatterday]

My DH tried to bake with the kids the other day, they weren't interested. They were very pleased to help me make sloe gin though and have been enthusiastically shaking the jars every day since. #makingmemories

[Hyacinth2]

Baking with A kid is fine- you made the mistake of doing it with more than one.

[bakehimawaytoys]

I completely agree. Decorating rich tea biscuits with icing sugar/water and sprinkles is quite good with kids.

[lemonsorbetinthesun]

Covert egg cracking!

[C0rnflake]

Only thing I genuinely enjoy making with kids is gingerbread men

[Ilovelindor]

I feel your pain OP. My 7YO is going through a cooking stage. He wanted to help me make chili the other night which resulted in chilli burnt onto my hob!

[stayathomer]

Yup, definitely not what it looks like on eg CBeebies but worth it for the excitement and relief afterwards!!😉

[dandelionthistle]

Baking (or just normal cooking) with my 5yo is actually really enjoyable, and has been since she was 2.

Baking or cooking with my 10yo is occasionally lovely but often stressful. I should try to do it more often but I find myself shying away because it can get a bit fraught.

Doing it with both together is horrible. They just fight and whine and inevitably one stomps off. The couple of times it worked beautifully I thought I'd cracked motherhood but it turned out to be just a fluke. 😂

[BestCatMumEver]

I just find the mess really stressful and they lose interest really quickly. Mine just want to eat the cake mix (which is the best bit).

[DrinkFeckArseBrick]

I do a lot of baking and really enjoyed baking with older relatives when I was young so try and do it with my kids.

I find picking the right recipe really helps. Some things are so fiddly there isnt that much they can do, or they ruin it. Something like muffins I dont find too bad - the measurements are vague so can be done in cups and don't need weighed, there are enough things to add that they can take turns, its quick so keeps their attention, and it's one bowl so not too much washing up.