What does your toddler do while you make dinner??

[lizbrown2002]

My 18 month old stands under my feet and SCREAMS the entire time!  I wind up tripping over her, getting annoyed, and becoming completely frustrated!  Any advice???

[aisling]

At that age, he was right in the kitchen with me doing work!

Chair up a the sink, run the water on low, give him colander, measuring cups, spatulas, whatever and wash them up. Put a towel under chair and take their shirt off.

Sit on floor and organise pots and storage containers

Wash lettuce, break beans in half, wash potatoes

Assist me in stirring, getting things out of fridge or cupboard.

Etc....

HTH,

A x

[legend_018]

I try to get 2 year old chayse to help, however..she decides she wants to do her own thing such as splash the water all over the place, squish things and throw them on the floor and grab things that I really don't want her grabbing. If she sits on the counter, if she is in one of her moods, she'll grab stuff in the cabinets and make big messes. LOL

[skatty]

I find when Leorah is like thagt it is because it is at that time of day when she is getting tired and hungry so a small snack usually works for us, some veggies I am chopping or a stick of cheese or something, our kitchen is tiny and too dangerous for her to be in whilst the cooker is on so she stands at the gate screaming so often it is dvd time too!

[Shdef]

He sits in his highchair next to me, helping with stuff like washing potatoes, breaking spaghetti in half, sometimes even cutting stuff, now that he is older. We talk a lot, too.

I love this, but I can see how he is getting to old for the highchair 

Oh, and the smel and occasional tasting gets his appetite going

[CharlotteandCharlie]

Dd2 used to do this ALL THE TIME.  Scream, cry, hang on my pants.  What worked peaches for me was to give her a snack.  Like she knew or could smell that food was coming but not fast enough.  If I really needed her out of my hair I would wheel the high chair up close and give her her snack in the chair.  She usually sits in there content and she is at my level so she can see more and often forgets to be grumpy. 

For me, her development is not at a point where she can "help" and playing in water for her is not an option.  She doesn't understand not to dump the cups onto herself or the floor.  At this age her sister did tho. 

[speechie]

DS gets cranky when he's hungry and hangs on me too. I have some success with sticking him in the highchair where he can watch, and giving him a snack or a sticker or some tupperware to play with. Sometimes he just about pulls my pants/trousers (for you brits:)) off trying to climb up into my arms. Breakfast is worse for him, tho.