Along with keeping your children clean and warm, providing food for your children is an animalistic instinct. Most parents care deeply about feeding their children well and want to provide the best food possible for their children. Also, for people like myself, cooking and food are culture and tradition. The problem is that children are not always willing and interested recipients of the food we cook. This can be disheartening, frustrating, and annoying.
I've cooked meals for my children that they have a track record of liking that they decide on that night they don't like for some reason. So they don't eat much and end up eating cereal hours later. This rejection doesn't feel good, and while we are teaching our children to be polite and appreciative about food even if they don't like it, it's tough to deal with.
I remember cooking for Ollie when he was a baby. I'd steam him pears and make him rice porridge. I'd cook him scrambled eggs in butter and toast points as he learned to pick up food and feed himself. As he entered toddlerhood, Ollie seemed to eat anything. I was so proud as he ate mouthfuls of salmon, chicken, and almost anything I put in front of him. I thought I was the master parent, and those parents who talked about their children only eating dino-nuggets didn't teach their children how to appreciate food. Before I knew it, Ollie pushed away much of the food he used to eat and entered dino-nugget land.
Sometimes I cook for my children a meal that comes from my heritage and my soul, like Taiwanese beef noodle soups. The dinner table is quiet as my boys slurp up noodles, and I feel proud of my heritage and my family. They are eating a dish my mom taught me how to make and connect them to their ancestors and their culture.
Sometimes I cook with my children, which can be a lot of fun, and other times it can be annoying. My children are good helpers in the kitchen, but when we don't have time to mess around and people are hungry, children in the kitchen is not a good idea.
Sometimes I feel like I'm giving up and throwing whatever I know they will and eating like instant ramen over taking a chance and cooking something more wholesome that they may not enjoy. And sometimes I cook a different meal for my children than I do for myself because I don't want to eat what I cook that I know they will enjoy, but I will not.
This is the reality of cooking for your children. There are wonderful moments, but there's a lot of frustration. And I am proud of my children. They eat many different foods and embrace many foods from their culture.
I'm not giving up. I'm always going to cook for my kids. Cooking is my love language, even if it's something as simple as making toast or a bowl of cereal. However, I do feel a need to be realistic and not portray cooking for children as some magical, wonderful thing because it's not always that way, and that's okay.
It's okay for parenting to be frustrating, and it's okay for cooking not to be fun. It's fine. I don't love every moment of parenting, and I don't love everything about cooking, and there are moments when I don't love cooking for my children. However, I do love parenting, I do love cooking, and I do love cooking for my children.
My children will know that their father tried to make good food and teach them about their culture and other culture through food. I am proud of that fact, and I'm proud to cook for my children.
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