How to make cooking an exciting family bonding moment

Want to get your kids more involved in the kitchen? Cooking is a great family bonding activity, and for many families, it’s their favourite way to spend time together. 

But while many parents would like to make cooking a family bonding activity, a lot choose not to because they’re worried about the time it will take and the excess mess to clean up.

That’s why in this article, we’ll share some practical tips so that you can start making cooking a family bonding event more often. 

Make it a weekly event

Depending on the age of your children, it may not be practical to make cooking a family bonding activity every night. So why not choose one night of the week instead? You might decide that Friday nights are cooking family bonding time. Or maybe Sunday brunch is more your style? 

Try and choose one day and time that works best for everyone and make it a weekly event. 

Choose kid-friendly recipes 

Children can quickly lose interest in cooking if they can’t be involved in every step of the process. That’s why we recommend choosing recipes that are kid-friendly for your cooking family bonding time. 

It’s best to choose recipes that involve baking in the oven rather than recipes that require constant stove top attention. Kids love using measuring cups and mixing things together, so keep that in mind when selecting recipes. Better yet, get the kids to choose! 

Bless the mess 

Understand and accept the fact that cooking with kids is going to be messier than usual. If your patience is wearing thin on a particular cooking day, it may be best to reschedule your cooking family bonding time for another day. 

Cooking with the family is meant to be fun, so make sure you schedule it for a time when you won’t be stressed out or bothered by a little extra mess to clean up in the kitchen. 

Cooking a family recipe? Tell your kids the story behind the food

Another great way to make cooking a family bonding moment is to choose recipes that have been handed down between generations. For instance, each year my family bakes a Christmas cake from a recipe we learnt from my mother, and my mother learnt it from her mother and so on. Talking about the relatives behind the food is a great way to honor their legacy while creating new memories of your own.  

Sharing these stories as you prepare the food helps to strengthen family bonds and educates your children about their family history, giving them a better sense of self. 

Enjoy the results together 

As you enjoy the food you’ve just prepared together as a family, a great way to cap off the experience of cooking family bonding is to each share which part of the cooking process you enjoyed the most. Then maybe brainstorm what you’d like to cook next time! 

We hope these practical tips will help cooking to become a family bonding activity that everybody looks forward to each week!