WHY INVOLVING YOUR CHILDREN TAKES TIME.

"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." – Franklin P. Jones

Today I had a lovely friend, her gorgeous girls and baby boy over for morning tea. She reads my blog and suggested that today I learn that it's okay to be in front of the camera (then she took a photo of me).

But today I have something else that I'd like to share. (Sorry Leanne, I'm feeling camera shy today!)

Before she came over I wanted to bake a raspberry, banana & coconut loaf. So with a half hour to spare, I grabbed all the ingredients from the pantry and started to prepare. And my boys, always loving to be part of whatever Mummy does, came over to 'help'. Their type of helping usually means eating the raw ingredients, but today Madison wanted to be helpful.

Really helpful.

But of course, I was in a hurry and just wanted to get the mixture into the oven so the house smelt all yummy when Leanne arrived.

I was starting to get stressed, when I stopped. And realised...

Why am I rushing this? He wants to learn. I should show him, teach him, empower him, and be patient. If I involve him, he'll stay interested in cooking and preparing food for eating for a lot longer. This opportunity may come and go and if it's not a positive experience, he won't want to help again.

So, then I let him sift the flours, and crack the eggs. And add the coconut milk and mix it all together.

And something that might have taken me a few minutes took a-a-a-ges.

But you know? He did a great job and was so proud of himself. We used lots of extra bowls (to make sure we didn't have egg shells in the mixture, and so we could do everything step by step).

The short term pain is worth the long term rewards.

I must make that my daily mantra.