If you are like me and have children at home, that time just before dinner can be crazy and chaotic. What is it about kids and the period of time between about four and six o’clock on week days? Do they all have some master plan to cause world wide chaos at that time? Everyone is hungry, bouncing off the walls and need help with something or other.
You might be tempted to just load everyone in the car and head out to the nearest family restaurant, but that can be a form of chaos in itself. Believe me, I know. And for those of you who have little ones that still sit nicely in a high chair at dinner time–beware the chaos is coming.
Don’t worry though, there is hope. Here are some ways that you can calm the cooking chaos and get a nice meal on the table without pulling your hair out.
The crockpot is your friend
If you do your cooking in the morning, you can avoid a lot of that chaos. Simple through a whole chicken or roast in the crockpot when you get up for the day and have a hot meal waiting for you at dinner time. Sure it is an avoidance tactic, but it works.
Involve the kids in cooking
This is a great solution that assuages the guilt you might otherwise feel for putting the kids in front of a video while you prepare dinner. Even younger children can get involved with cooking by fetching measuring spoons and ingredients. Older children can cut ingredients (with a plastic knife or butter knife if young), mix and measure.
This works four ways. It provides a distraction, it helps you in the kitchen, it teaches valuable lessons (soon they will be cooking for you) and it makes it more likely that the kids will actually eat the dinner, since they helped prepare it.
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