My and my shadow

One of the joys of life is cooking, and I am lucky that I can do this most nights. We have delivered a box full of ingredients and from this we get to make dishes that vary from carbonara to mu shu pork. It used to be that I would get home, turn on the gas, and have dinner ready for Mrs G when she got home.

Now I pick up Feliciraptor from nursery, and A-Rex is at home with his mother, I have the joy of my own little Sous chef to cook with me. While I am dicing onions (pronounced ooo-knee-ons by my second-in-command) I have to be careful of four sets of fingers.

It’s not only the evening meal that now must be done with someone shadowing me.

Feliciraptor has reached the age where she is a ‘big girl’ (at 2 1/2) so feels that she can, and must, do everything me and Mrs G do. It used to be that making her milk in the morning was a 60 second job. Now I have to take her to the fridge, open and pour the milk with her, let her press the buttons on the microwave and walk back upstairs. This process will take fives times as long.

Doing the straps on her car seat, no ‘my’ has to do it now. She has to open the doors to her nursery, and her routine is so well known that the staff will rush to shut any open doors so my little dino can do it.

At home she has a full kitchen so she can make tea, cook dinner, wash up, do the laundry and hoover with her toy dyson.

With her brother we are almost at the point where we could ask her to babysit. Well maybe not all the way there, but she would certainly be happy to try. No task without A-Rex is without a tiny “I help” from behind.

The issue is that our shadow is not the most gentle of hand. When she ‘cuts’ food while helping me cook it becomes more of a smash than a slice. When she helps bathe her brother with a sponge it is more of a boxing glove.

Even though it is a pain for each task to take longer, and can be annoying when we want to hurry, I wouldn’t want to dissuade my children from helping. It is enjoyable to cook with my daughter, and hopefully my son when he is older. Planting in the garden is made more enjoyable with another pair of tiny hands.

Plus it is the only way to deal with Little Miss Lenny, she can only learn to be a more helpful and gentler child with practice.

Source: Shadow