Baking With Your Toddler Without Losing Your Mind

Some moms I have met have this remarkable ability to just have fun and have a messy life. It all seems so carefree and whimsical. That is not me. And if you're anything like me, then this post is for you.

Before Little Brook, I ran a bakery out of my home. I absolutely loved it, but I decided to move on to bigger and better things. This makes me an expert on baking with your toddler. I also have a husband who is a neat freak and I don't have a dishwasher, so all of these tips are meant for someone who, like me, wants to stay clean.

1. Start young- This is my biggest piece of advice because there are rules that we can teach to our one-year-olds much easier than our three-year-olds. If you didn't start young, it's still going to be okay. The main rule I taught my daughter is that hands go on the outsides of bowls, not the insides. All kids are different, but I can now trust my 3.5 year old with the stand mixer even if I have to grab an ingredient.

2. Get a really good stool. We go this one from Ikea- https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/bekvaem-step-stool-rubberwood-50611022/ The reason the stool makes a difference is because, if you get a sub-par one, your child will be distracted and spill things.

3. Pre-measure everything and put them in little bowls (for little hands). The process I go through is: I premeasure, my daughter comes and joins me after, I hand her the little bowls and tell her to dump them in the mixer, she turns on the mixer, she loses interest, I finish baking.

4. Understand that messes will happen, but every time you bake together, less messes happen. I now am at the point where we don't really have messes anymore unless there is some kind of accident.

Baking with your toddler can be a wonderful, time-consuming activity and one that will leave you all with yummy treats. If you're not quite ready to full-on bake yet, you can always make something low-bake like slime or kinetic sand!