How I Am Working Myself Out of a Job

I was totally failing at something that was really important to me. Maybe you can relate.

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A few years ago, we started a class that has been life-changing to our family. I say life-changing because my goal as a parent is to equip my kids to be independent adults with an ear towards saving money and eating healthy.

I was not doing that.

Instead, I was keeping them completely dependent on me and building resentment towards real food. My kids are getting older, and some of them are ready to spread their wings a little, practice adulting skills, and make a few mistakes.

As a parent, my goal is to work myself out of a job. I want my kids to enjoy being around me when they grow up, but I don’t want them to need me. By the time they are 18 years old, they should be making 100% of their decisions. This means that as they grow up, I should be equipping them and releasing more and more of those decisions.

Thankfully, right now I’m still the boss, and I get to decide where to start giving them more freedom and independence. I am not ready to do this with screens. I am not ready to do this with sports and outside activities (please God, don’t ever make me a baseball mom. Mkay, thanks.).

Instead, we started with eating and cooking. It seemed a natural place to start because we all eat three times a day. That’s a lot of practice and decisions my older kids get to make. Since many young adults don’t know a thing about cooking and shopping, I knew an early start would be wise – before screen time and sports activities inevitably rise.

Failing

I tried to teach them on my own for awhile, and it didn’t work.

While I enjoy cooking, doing it with my kids was not fun. When my oldest was a toddler, I was really good at it. I had patience and the two of us were precious and creative. A lot has changed.

I tried to include my kids, but they could tell it stressed me out – the mess, the movement, the questions, the noise.

By fall 2017, my 8-year-old – my precious sous chef back in the day – only had a vague interest in cooking.

The middle son had no interest. Because of course, I forgot to include him during his toddler days while his big brother hogged the stage (sorry, middle children).

The 3-year-old dumped 10 pounds of flour on the table while helping me make bread. That’s all I’ll say.

I thought I was teaching my kids to cook. But I was only making a mess. Or cleaning it up. The kitchen became a stressful place for my kids.

I was failing.

Kids Cook Real Food

We decided to try a new cooking course from my friend, Katie. She taught me a lot about cooking real food, and she used to be a teacher, so I knew this class was already going to be good.

It wasn’t just good. It was game-changing.

For some reason – probably because I’m a homeschool mom – I feel like I need to do everything. However, this isn’t healthy for me or for my kids. They need other teachers and influencers in their lives. Katie is just that.

She is a fun, smart adult-who-is-not-mom who teaches them about healthy eating, empowers them to prepare their own meals, and makes it creative and silly along the way.

After the second class, my oldest son asked if he could bake cookies, AND HE DID. BY HIMSELF. Maybe cookies aren’t healthy, but it was a step.

Honestly, we haven’t worked our way through the entire course. Each class is extremely powerful, and we started over again this last semester so my youngest could pick up some basic skills and the older ones could refine theirs.

All three of them LOVE cooking and constantly talk about the importance of real food. They help with meals on a daily basis. They make food independently. When they volunteer to help, IT IS ACTUALLY HELPFUL.

Class Doors Close on September 4!

If real food and nurturing independence is important to you, try Kids Cook Real Food.

But hurry… I just found out that they are only accepting new members until September 4th!!

You might just work yourself out of a job.

• Go here to get a freebie list of healthy snacks that kids can make!
• Go here to get a free knife skills class! This is easily the skill my kids use the most often.