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For people cooking alone with a kid. How do you entertain them while cooking without screentime? Kid is 16 months. Too old to lie still, and too young to help o

For people cooking alone with a kid. How do you entertain them while cooking without screentime? Kid is 16 months. Too old to lie still, and too young to help out in any capacity without getting injured. Edit: Letting them play with utensils gives me about 2-3 minutes.

drekipus 4y ago
Is the kid not capable of quietly playing with their toys? Not making any judgement but I truly think that parenting is a two-person job.
- watwut 4y ago
  At that age, it is pretty much random. Some kids yes, some not and most of them are in the middle - sometimes yes and other times no. Their attention span is very small, so basically no child will play alone long enough for you to cook. You cant really force it to happen in any case. Sometimes you cook while fighting the kid and that is that.
- kasperni 4y ago
  > Is the kid not capable of quietly playing with their toys? You don't have kids right?
- eggsmediumrare 4y ago
  Parenting is a many person job but we've decided to incorrectly model our society around the idea that it's a <=2 person job.
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  Small kids get bored quickly. They play with any given toy the same way I listen to songs: without stopping, until saturation, and then infrequently or not at all. Whether this will last 20 minutes or 2 hours or 2 days - it's kinda random. Even if you give the kid a completely new toy, chances are, they won't get interested immediately. Or even the same day. Parenting is definitely 2+ person job. At the very least, it's a full-time job for one person.
iraldir 4y ago
most of the time my wife is there to look after our 16 month old baby when I cook, but there are occasions when she's not. Usually in those cases I sit her in her high chair next to me in the kitchen, and entertain her by giving her kitchen ustensils to play with, like a whisk, a funnel, a wooden spoon, or sometimes I sacrifice food by giving her a raw carrot for instance. As I cook I make her try the food as it goes, and I narrate what I do, try to make it interesting, sing etc. And I make sure to, as much as possible, do everything that requires two hands as fast as possible (cutting vegetable and meats) so that if she ends up getting frustrated and wants to go in my arms, I can hold her with my left hand whilst I cook with my right hand. We do that a couple time a week at least and 90% of the times it goes well. There has been the occasional time where she was in a bad mood and crying and I had to use both hands for cooking, with no other choice that to let her cry for a while, but mostly it's alright.
sandos 4y ago
What did people do before youtube? Why is it impossible to leave the kid alone in a safe-ish environment? We had an "almost" strict no-screens policy (long car trips I think was excluded) when our kids were under 2 years of age. It was fine, don't even remember it as a problem, even when only one parent was home cooking.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  TV/DVDs/VHS tapes? And, well, prior to that women were largely expected to dedicate most of their time to looking after kids. I was a single Dad of a 3yo (long before YouTube) and I can't imagine having done it without having some form of electronic entertainment to keep the kid distracted. I suppose I would've relied on other family or expensive childcare options.
swimf 4y ago
SpongeBob... The classics! Anything on vhs or dvd disk... While you still can
quickthrower2 4y ago
Maybe a playpen? Or high chair. Or avoid cooking in real time. Prepare food at other times. Have healthy snacks available. Or use things like steamers and slow cookers or oven, all of which need less continuous attention than frying or boiling stuff.
MandieD 4y ago
Mine’s now a bit older (2.5), but will play with plastic cups and dishes and the dish brush in the sink with the tap on trickle until I turn it off and pull him off the chair. He occasionally demands a drop of dish soap.

drekipus 4y ago

Is the kid not capable of quietly playing with their toys? Not making any judgement but I truly think that parenting is a two-person job.

watwut 4y ago
At that age, it is pretty much random. Some kids yes, some not and most of them are in the middle - sometimes yes and other times no. Their attention span is very small, so basically no child will play alone long enough for you to cook. You cant really force it to happen in any case. Sometimes you cook while fighting the kid and that is that.
kasperni 4y ago
> Is the kid not capable of quietly playing with their toys? You don't have kids right?
eggsmediumrare 4y ago
Parenting is a many person job but we've decided to incorrectly model our society around the idea that it's a <=2 person job.
TeMPOraL 4y ago
Small kids get bored quickly. They play with any given toy the same way I listen to songs: without stopping, until saturation, and then infrequently or not at all. Whether this will last 20 minutes or 2 hours or 2 days - it's kinda random. Even if you give the kid a completely new toy, chances are, they won't get interested immediately. Or even the same day. Parenting is definitely 2+ person job. At the very least, it's a full-time job for one person.

iraldir 4y ago

most of the time my wife is there to look after our 16 month old baby when I cook, but there are occasions when she's not. Usually in those cases I sit her in her high chair next to me in the kitchen, and entertain her by giving her kitchen ustensils to play with, like a whisk, a funnel, a wooden spoon, or sometimes I sacrifice food by giving her a raw carrot for instance. As I cook I make her try the food as it goes, and I narrate what I do, try to make it interesting, sing etc. And I make sure to, as much as possible, do everything that requires two hands as fast as possible (cutting vegetable and meats) so that if she ends up getting frustrated and wants to go in my arms, I can hold her with my left hand whilst I cook with my right hand. We do that a couple time a week at least and 90% of the times it goes well. There has been the occasional time where she was in a bad mood and crying and I had to use both hands for cooking, with no other choice that to let her cry for a while, but mostly it's alright.

sandos 4y ago

What did people do before youtube? Why is it impossible to leave the kid alone in a safe-ish environment? We had an "almost" strict no-screens policy (long car trips I think was excluded) when our kids were under 2 years of age. It was fine, don't even remember it as a problem, even when only one parent was home cooking.

wizofaus 4y ago
TV/DVDs/VHS tapes? And, well, prior to that women were largely expected to dedicate most of their time to looking after kids. I was a single Dad of a 3yo (long before YouTube) and I can't imagine having done it without having some form of electronic entertainment to keep the kid distracted. I suppose I would've relied on other family or expensive childcare options.

swimf 4y ago

SpongeBob... The classics! Anything on vhs or dvd disk... While you still can

quickthrower2 4y ago

Maybe a playpen? Or high chair. Or avoid cooking in real time. Prepare food at other times. Have healthy snacks available. Or use things like steamers and slow cookers or oven, all of which need less continuous attention than frying or boiling stuff.

MandieD 4y ago

Mine’s now a bit older (2.5), but will play with plastic cups and dishes and the dish brush in the sink with the tap on trickle until I turn it off and pull him off the chair. He occasionally demands a drop of dish soap.