When the kids outnumber the parents, the only way to survive is to surrender. So the kid likes to play with the water. Is that a problem? Not for me. I put him in our deep kitchen sink, turn on the faucet to a slow speed and let the child play with it.
Water is an inexpensive educational toy. It should come with a label: “Helps develop eye-hand coordination as the child pours water from one dish to another and learns the principle that water always seeks its own level.” Kids seek water of any level. They fill a cup and dump it a hundred times and are still not ready to quit. The first time I stuck a grandchild in the sink with some water while I worked in the kitchen, their mother was shocked. She got over it.The last few times I have talked with her, she said her child was busy playing with the water.
If nothing else the floor is so wet afterward it absolutely guarantees it will be mopped that day.
So kids like to take everything out of the kitchen cupboards. Put the dangerous stuff way up high and let them. Our exchange student said one day when her mom was busy in another part of the house she emptied out all the white dry goods onto the middle of the kitchen floor:
Flour, sugar, cornstarch, macaroni. She said she was making a sand pile. Her mother was not impressed.
A pragmatic, white-haired grandmother told me, “We didn’t have a lot of toys. They would take the cans of food out of the cupboard and line them up and down the hall in a train. Once in a while the labels came off and we did not know what was in the can anymore. We would open a can thinking it was beans and it would be soup. I was glad it kept them busy and happy.” So the only place toddlers liked to play is underfoot. With all the cooking I had to do, I put their toys in one of the kitchen cupboards. I was pretty good at tossing toys and pots and pans back into their proper cupboards. The kids kept busy and I got to watch as they played.
I will always remember my pre-schooler who practiced new skills obsessively. He cut scrap paper with his scissors until he was surrounded with confetti. When he was developing the art of balancing one thing on top of another, he extended his skill to anything within reach. His grand finale presentation was the day he circled the kitchen floor with carefully balanced towers including a child’s set of plastic milk jugs with different colored removable lids. I didn’t think those things were stackable, but he did and they were.
So little ones just loves to help mommy cook? I let them. But, at least one newly married Hershberger was totally shocked at my collection of pictures of toddlers covered with flour, or peanut-butter or jam. How could I? I smiled weakly, “it was kind of fun watching them figure out what to do with the bread dough. I wasn’t always watching closely and it was very cheap entertainment.” The day her babies became toddlers, and discovered the fun in the kitchen, she began taking her own pictures. Sometimes it is easier and saner to surrender than take a firm stand, especially when it comes to kids and kitchens.