There was a time when the thought of cooking with my kids would send me running toward the nearest take-out pizzeria.  The longer time it takes to prepare a meal, the general mayhem that ensues when kids are in an enclosed space with kitchen tools and yes, the inevitable mess, just had me scared.

Afterall, there was one time when I was making pancakes with my kids and in anticipation of the mess, I thought I had the whole area covered—I mean, literally, covered.  I spread newspapers on the kitchen floor, made sure I had rolls of paper towels out and short of putting the kids in full-body armor, I had everything ready for cooking battle.

But of course, kids are kids, and somehow always find a way to foil even the best-laid plans: a wild wave of an arm ended up accidentally sending a bag of flour to the floor (note: newspapers work well for protecting floors from dropped eggs or banana chunks, but are virtually powerless against flour that slips between its pages.  Ever try to sweep up flour? Argh!) and I didn’t see the collection of chocolate chips that my son was innocently stockpiling in his pant pockets until they made their presence known on the living room floor an hour later. It wasn’t pretty…

But despite the mess, I had to admit, it was a blast!

Maybe it was the joy of getting to manhandle (ok, eat) bags of chocolate chips without guilt or reprimand, or singing that song about “apples and bananas” as we sliced fruit, or decorating our pancakes to look like each other’s faces, but somehow I didn’t mind cleaning up the broken eggs or referee-ing those squabbles over whose turn it is to stir the batter...I was thoroughly enjoying myself!

And then there was seeing the sense of accomplishment my kids gained from contributing to the family meal.  I watched Elle swell with pride as I complimented her on her yummy pancakes. I saw the satisfied look on Max’s face when we thanked him for stirring the batter.

I don’t have it all figured out yet.  There are definitely days when I just want them to color rather than be underfoot, and there are (too many) times when raw eggs hit the counter instead of the bowl.  But since I opened the door to cooking with my kids more often, I’ve really come to enjoy it.  We’ve eaten new foods, we’ve tried new recipes and I’ve made much fewer trips to our local take-out pizzeria.

One of our products here at Clorox, Clorox Clean up Cleaner, is running a contest encouraging families to cook up a mess in the kitchen. Send in some photos of your kids cookin’ up a mess in the kitchen for a chance to win some pretty sweet prizes! Find out more details here.

How do you involve your kids in the kitchen?