How Important is a Family-Friendly Kitchen?

I'm sure many of us dreamed of spending time in the kitchen with our future children. You might have seen children on TV, baking and making a mess with their parents. You may have even spent time with your own parents baking cakes, preparing gingerbread at Christmas, and sharing happy afternoons at home. Of course it doesn’t always work out this way, as I'm sure most of us are sometimes guilty of closing the door behind us, in an attempt to keep our kitchens clean and tidy and aware from the dangers of the kitchen.

But the kitchen really is a significant room in your house. Children that spend time in the kitchen with their parents often grow up with a love of cooking and a healthy relationship with food - something that is so important in this age. They are less likely to be fussy eaters, and more likely to have great relationships with their parents too! Getting your children into the kitchen doesn’t need to be stressful either. In fact, as long as you’ve got a family-friendly kitchen it can actually be enjoyable for everyone involved.

Make Sure It’s Durable

Getting your family into the kitchen more is great, but there are bound to be accidents. Make sure to invest in quality worktops and equipment, looking at quartz worktop advantages to help you to create a durable, and safe kitchen.

Keep Things Easy to Clean

Children (and a lot of adults) make a mess. This is to be expected and something you have to learn to live with! But while some mess is ok, it can also become dangerous. Keep your kitchen easy to clean with wipeable surfaces, floors and doors, and encourage a clean as you go practice.

Make Safety a Priority

Kitchens are great places to spend time together, but they can be dangerous with equipment, sharp knives and hot surfaces. Keep your kitchen safe by placing anything dangerous out of reach, cleaning up after yourself, and by teaching your children safe practices. Never leave them unsupervised and always show them the correct way to do things.

Create a Child Safe Zone

If you’ve got very young children, you might want to create a child safe zone, where they are safe to bake and experiment. Add lower surfaces, or a stool, and keep everything that they can use nearby. You might even want to give them their own cupboard with colourful bowls and spoons, fun cookie cutters, an apron, and other safe supplies. If you’ve got the room, you could also add some seating so that they can spend time with you in the kitchen when you are busy preparing dinner.

Add Plenty of Colour

Add colourful bakeware, as well as tiles, towels and other pops of colour that will interest your children, and make them keen to spend time in the kitchen. Keep things relaxed and easy, and add plenty of fun.

Use It

To create a family-friendly kitchen, you need to let your family in! Open the doors, add seating, spend time in there together, whether eating, cooking or chatting. A lot of families now attach a 'snug' to their kitchen so that everyone can enjoy the space together.

This is a collaborative post.