Connecting through cooking...and crying

10 days of connecting with your child bonding with your child

We are continuing our 10 Days of Connecting With Your Child Series, and I really thought this one was going to be a WIN, a breeze, easy-peasy because ya know, simple is good.

It's Summer and my youngest LOVES cooking. He squealed when opening his box of Kidstir, the Award-Winning Kids Cooking Club subscription.

He can spend hours in the kitchen with us reading the recipes, filling up the measuring cups, mixing and watching the oven!

It is truly a great bonding experience and one that is unique to his personality (my oldest son has absolutely no interest and will only learn to cook so he doesn't grow up and starve to death).

The bonding and connecting through an interest your child displays, such as cooking together, offers numerous benefits.

It strengthens self esteem as they are able to "do it themselves", builds and reinforces Math, Reading and Science (Chemistry) skills, develops fine motor skills, and increases their sense of discovery and willingness to try out new foods...more on that later (yeah stay with me, it will be epic).

So, I suggested we whip up a fun Summer treat together!

Since we're outside in the heat playing for a good part of the day, I asked his opinion on making homemade fruit pops, ya know the kind without the artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

He LOVED the idea and so I ordered these nifty fruit pop bags, bought some seasonal fruit and got started!

In a blender my Happy Little Chef added: 3 cups of chunks of watermelon, 3/4 C water, 1 tbsp Maple Syrup.

I made a separate batch and added chopped-up mint leaves because we adults love fruit with mint, we're fancy that way.

Once liquefied, we filled the bags, tied them and placed them in a bowl in the freezer.

Easy-peasy, just don't make my mistake of overfilling the bags or it can be tricky to tie them.

connecting with your child through cooking

A few hours later they were ready and my son was THRILLED to pull them out of the freezer!

We played chefs in the kitchen, we learned, we chatted, we bonded, we connected...

Best afternoon ever, right?

I handed out the fruit pops and we all began to pierce the corner of the bag and enjoy the fruity deliciousness.

Or so I thought.

I turn around and my son, yes the Happy Little Chef, is BAWLING his eyes out!

WHAAAAAAAAAAT? Have I poisoned my child, did he swallow a bug, have I missed something terribly or caused him fruitpop harm in some way??? What is the big catastrophe happening before my eyes?

I hold him while prying his mouth open to assess any emergency maneuvers I may have to perform. Nothing. All clear except for the waterworks.

He finally manages to get out a sobbing "I - I - I - I Just don't like watermelon AT ALL!" followed by the most heart-wrenching I-just-lost-my-best-friend type of hip-cupping.

The biggest disappointment of his 6-year-old life has just unfolded in the form of a WATERMELON Fruitpop, really?

Sigh.

Another #momfail

[those are watermelon tears]

10 ways of connecting with your child bonding with your child

We're going on a special fruit-shopping trip to the Farmer's Market tomorrow, to pick out a less traumatizing ingredient. Hopefully, this will also be a bonding and connecting experience and my Mom of the Year Award will not be revoked.

I'll keep you posted.

DISCLAIMER: No children were harmed in the making of this post. No, really. He's totally fine. We've bonded and connected over many other cooking experiences since.

Try some Homemade Fruit Pops and let me know how the kids enjoy them! And for pete's sake, help me out and post their favorite fruit combinations in the comments, will you please? Thank you, friends!

Read MORE posts from our

10 Days of Connecting With Your Child Series {HERE}