I am obsessed with food and cooking. I can’t imagine not cooking at least one meal a day and part of the reason for the obsession is that my mother was a lousy cook. I grew up eating kanji & payaru every night for dinner, because Amma didn’t see the need to cook anything fancy. My oldest sister finds it challenging to boiling a cup of water and relies on other people for her daily meal. I always believed that good food makes everyone happy and insist that my children learn to cook. All three of them can cook without any problems, however if you give Yaya a choice, she would rather starve than cook.
I procrastinated a bit thinking that Uni classes will start not on the first day and found that I have classes until 4.30 PM on Monday. I had to take Baby for her Basketball training at 5.30 and obviously didn’t have time to even think what to cook for dinner.
As I was leaving, I heard this little voice that asked me ” Mom, do you want me to cook dinner?”
I had to take a second look to make sure that I wasn’t hallucinating and there was Yaya, sitting on the floor in the living room, doing her home work and offering to cook dinner.
It felt so good.
She made couscous, salad and lemon chicken. My son is not fond of couscous, but the rule has always been the same, “you eat what is served or fix your own meal” and since he didn’t want to make his own dinner, he ate the couscous.
As a mom, these are the greatest moments.. to see your children taking responsibility when you least expect them to.
Like you have fulfilled your responsibility?
Bipin: No, it wasn’t about fulfilling my responsibility. I didn’t want my children to depend on others for food like my sister does. I wanted them to be able to cook, so they will be independent.
I always heard that when you expect less, you’ll be surprised at some of the things that happen to you and you can deal with almost anything easily. And ironically when you have a high load of expectations, things almost never go your way. Life is not always bliss, so never have any expectations for yourself nor your children or basically anyone. Only thing that should be expected is that they are good human beings who respect others for the way they are and treat everyone equally.
It’s good to hear that your children like to cook. I thought I read in another one of your posts that you’re kids don’t really do any housework/cook..and you never expect them to since they need to lead their own lives. This is true, but even if they don’t cook or do housework now, they’ll eventually will when they are on their own. Just be positive about responsibility and sometimes it’s good to make them learn the hard way themselves and you’ll be amazed.
I like cooking too. When I was living on my own, I would try new recipes. I always help my mom in the kitchen and like it except when she’s anal about being a traditional housewife who must be perfect to please in laws and thinks there’s only one way to do things else the in laws will gossip behind your back. It should be a enjoyable hobby and good skill to have, but not at the expense where it has to be a burden.
J1206: I have very high expectations about myself and my children. I strongly believe expectations helps me with a sense of direction as to where I want to go with my life and sense of urgency. I made plenty of mistakes, but they were not because I had high expectations, but because I was plain stupid. I expect that my children do whatever they want to do with their life well.
Learning to cook food is a skill every child ought to learn. When my children attend school camps, often they are the ones who end up cooking because most of their classmates don’t know to cook. Unlike before, it is much easier to buy food than to cook. 20 years ago, people died because of poverty and now people die because of obesity. As a mom, it is my responsibility to teach my children to make a healthy choice