Special Ingredients

I am not a mom who makes a hot breakfast every morning. My kind of breakfast is to pour a bowl of cereal and peel a banana. Warming up a bowl of instant oatmeal is pushing it. Sometimes I will make a "special breakfast" when I break out the griddle, but this is very seldom in our house .This works for my family....all except for Kaylee. She hates cereal. She is the type who wants a hot breakfast every morning...pancakes, eggs, sausage, cinnamon rolls...anything that takes time, a pan, and more than two ingredients she will eat. Needless to say, she usually goes hungry.

The other day, the typical breakfast battle ensued. Kaylee wanted muffins and I didn't have time to make them (ok, I'll be honest...I didn't want to make them). Kaylee asked if she could make them instead. Usually I would have said no, but thanks to a great book that I have been reading - The Parenting Breakthrough (more on this in another post) - I relented and let Kaylee make her muffins.

She amazed me. She has been helping me in the kitchen for years, but she has never cooked something on her own. She followed the recipe and did a fabulous job. She was so proud of her muffins and her accomplishment. It also sparked a fire for cooking in her. She has been in the kitchen helping me with every dinner. She even prepared a family home evening lesson on following a recipe. Those were some of the best muffins that I have ever had because there was a new, special ingredient added to them...self confidence. I realized that if I want to raise independent and confident kids I better start giving them some freedom to be independent! Try adding some independence and confidence into your recipes and you may be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Now on to teaching Kaylee and Aaron how to make omelets, waffles, and french toast so that I never have to make breakfast again :) I will just sleep in and they will bring me a scrumptious breakfast in bed, clean up the mess, and get themselves off to school. Hay, a mom can dream can't she?