Weapons for unruly children

  This idea might seem controversial at first but bear with me. You'll have noticed I'm always encouraging you to muster a little involvement from the small folk in your world but as it's not a subject I've tackled head on in a while, it's time to revisit.

  Apparently children come in all shapes and sizes, as well as ages, so I trust you to use some discretion here but I'm absolutely convinced that not only should children be made to help you in the kitchen but they will benefit from, and quite possibly even enjoy the experience. And that's where you come in, their sense of enjoyment will be largely down to you.

Any closer and you'll be eating through a straw!

  Something else I'm also convinced of is that our connection with kitchens and cooking starts very early so if you encourage your little monsters (That may not be a very helpful description. -Ed.) from an early age then this will be a massive bonus. The food industry wants us to associate the kitchen with 'work' so if you can show it as something different that will also help. And this is where knives come in.

My experience also is that giving them weapons (That description is not helpful either. -Ed.) makes them feel grown up and responsible as well. As a nipper, the idea of being tooled up and given things to destroy in a creative manner was heaven, and look at me now. (You're not doing yourself any favours. -Ed).

  I'll be the first to admit that there are loads of children that I'd never want near a knife, especially while I'm in the same room but that's where tasks come in. For the particularly small ones, maybe start off with a peeler but as soon as they can work out intuitively which end to grasp and that they shouldn't put it in their mouths I'd say they were ready for the big guns. (That's it, I'm leaving. -Ed)

  

Kirk out

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