Mum's The Word - April 12, 2016

William Mellor (left) with his sister Gracie helping with the Sunday dinner

I love it when children are at an age when they want to willingly help with household tasks.

And they don’t even ask for pocket money in return.

Take Sunday dinner, for example.

With all that peeling and chopping I can be in the kitchen for a fair few hours... unless I’ve got some little helpers.

William and one of his sisters, seven-year-old Gracie, were such efficient sous-chefs the other day I was almost made redundant!

We had quite a vegetable conveyor belt going. Gracie is a pretty proficient peeler and chopper, so she put her finished veg in a bowl for William to sort into the right pans or baking trays.

“Great,” I thought.”This’ll keep the little chap entertained for ages!”

He started picking up each circle of carrot one at a time to place in the pan.

Until the clever cookie realised it’d be much quicker to just tip them all in one go.

He looked at me as if I was stupid to even suggest wasting his time in such a way.

Well, there went my toddler entertainment plan!

So, they moved on to the more difficult job of making a cheese sauce from scratch.

They made a roux, then Gracie stirred as William poured in the milk and the cheese, laughing at the sound of each piece dropping in.

They were a great team – with the proof definitely in the tasting.

Then they offered to clean the patio windows (which had their fingerprints all over them) for 50 pence.

What happened to that age of doing household chores just for fun?

Maybe I’ll have to find some more difficult Masterchef-style recipes next time!