Little Man was helping me in the kitchen recently and man does he say the craziest things. He’s been asking to join me in the kitchen because he sees how much Little Lady helps out when I cook breakfast on the weekends. I promised next time I was doing something he could help with I’d let him know. Little did I know my kid would compare me to an animal and we’d have a silly yet meaningful time cooking.
I figured I would start him off easy. I was making us something to eat and knew he could help with cracking the eggs and beating them. When he came into the kitchen I put him to work and he started a conversation with me. It went a little something like this.
“Oh, this is fun. It’s pretty easy, right mom? I gotta learn because I need to make food when I get older”
I’m nodding the whole time and finally, he turns to look at me.
“Woah mom, you have a lot of things going on. You’re like an octopus because they have 8 hands and can do a lot of things at one time like you”
I had the stove going with 2 pans, the sink water running and loading the dishwasher as I cleaned 0ff kitchen table and got us ready for dinner.
“Ya, I like to multitask, love. I have to get it all done at one time so we can eat together, right?”
“Ya, you’re fast too”
“Ya I try, love. Are you having fun helping mama?”
“Ya but I’m getting a little hungry now”
Little Man is a shy kid, it’s rare he really shares his feelings usually his excitement comes from video games, tv shows, or his reading books. I ask a lot of questions and get short answers but on this day He really was the one working the conversation. I loved out time in the kitchen especially because he’s a growing boy and I know soon he will tower over me and be very busy with things of his own.
I realized that having him in the kitchen is important not only for what he thinks he’s learning. You know, learning to be able to feed himself when he gets older but also our mother-son relationship.
We joke around that soon he will be taller than me and his response is always “I’ll carry you like you carried me when I was little” He hasn’t figured out it doesn’t work that way but I’ll take it!
It’s fun to hear him compare me to an octopus as long as he doesn’t expect me to continue to be the octopus in the family. It’s time I added a few more chores to the list, right? He’ll have to take on cooking for us some day too.
How are you spending quality time and building relationships with your kids? Are you too an octopus?
I guess all mom’s are like octopus….LOL funny but VERY accurate!!