Welcome, y’all!
I’m Sarah Bell, wife and mother of two boys. Two hungry boys. With hungry friends. If my kids did not know how to feed themselves, I might never leave the kitchen! Thank goodness they are both proficient in the kitchen and even know how to clean the kitchen after FEEDING THEMSELVES.
Life with teenagers is so different. I was honestly not prepared when it happened. Is any mom? It’s not like you get a helpful two week warning that things are about to drastically change. It just happens. Homework moves from the kitchen table to the desk in her room. Sports practices every day after school. Staying after practice to watch the varsity game with friends.
How I got here
The early years of parenting are tough. You’re doing everything for your kids while receiving little feedback.
Then all of a sudden, you turn around and your kids are mostly independent. And you realize that...Yes! They Grow Up. And then you panic because you haven’t taught them everything you want them to know, and time is running out.
Before you know it, you will be in the midst of the whirlwind that is their senior year of high school.
And just like that...they’re out of the house experiencing all life has to offer at that exhilarating stage...ON THEIR OWN.
Why I do it
I love what Julia Turshen says about cooking at home…it is the “best way to simultaneously press pause and play on life.” One thing I have learned about parenting teens is that I have to be strategic if I want us to connect and spend quality time together. When I ask my kids if they want to spend time with me, it’s usually a hard pass especially if there’s a choice between me and hanging out with friends. When one of them asks if we can recreate a culinary creation he saw on TikTok, and I’m all in? I get his undivided attention.
Teenagers are hungry...we all know this is true! Getting them in the kitchen is one strategy that works. Sometimes teens are less chatty. When we’re in the kitchen we get that 10 minutes it takes for the water to boil to talk about who dominated the basketball court or what happened at morning break. Plus we create topics of conversation for later because of our shared experience. It’s these ordinary pockets of time in our activity-packed days (and nights) that I treasure. If I were to sit down and do something crazy like make eye contact and say, “Let’s talk!”, they would certainly BOLT! But while waiting on food to fill their seemingly bottomless bellies, the words tumble out of their mouths, if only by accident.
That is exactly what I had in mind when creating a resource for busy moms (and dads!) who want to teach their kids to cook so we can set them up for success when they're on their own and sneak in quality time in the process.
Let's chat