One of my daughter's favorite Christmas presents is the play kitchen she received from her grandparents. The unit includes a stove top, oven, sink, microwave, refrigerator, phone, drawers and cabinets. Of course Nana also bought pots and pans, cups, plates, bowls, pitchers, glasses, silverware, cooking utensils and a hot pad - as well as plastic fruit, bread, meat, eggs, veggies, pizza, chips, dessert, canned goods, dry goods and anything else you could need for a well stocked kitchen!My daughter and her cousins loved cooking for all the relatives who were at her grandparents for the holidays. Soon we were finding plastic forks, hamburgers and chips under our feet, on the couch and in our rooms. The baby also enjoyed nabbing any of the toy food or dishes he could get a hold of and 'eating' them. A couple of the cardboard 'dry goods' boxes got crushed the first day. The play food seemed to be everywhere and even when I helped the kids clean up, the plethora of kitchen accessories could barely be contained in the kitchen's cupboards, drawers and extra picnic basket that Nana included. The children spent hours playing with the kitchen, and all loved it, even though it was often hard to find the specific food or dish they wanted. Immediately, I realized this might be an issue when we brought the kitchen home, especially since all of the playthings in our house have specifically designated spots, baskets or bins into which they are put away. (Yes, I admit it - I like order and so does my daughter).
On the trip home, I thought about where I should set up the kitchen so my daughter would have the freedom to play and cook, but we would not find her kitchen toys all over the house. With a stroke of genius, I decided to put her kitchen in the corner of our kitchen. My daughter always wants to help me cook, this was she could cook when I cook, and the kitchen toys would not be mixed in with other toys in our playroom.
When I mentioned it to my husband he was worried that her kitchen toys would then be all over our kitchen and in the way of our back entrance. So I put a very small corner shelf, that we were not using, next to her kitchen unit as well as an extra basket to help organize her food and dishes. Then I used black tape and marked off a small section of the floor around her kitchen. Together we found places for all of the food and dishes in 'her kitchen' and I showed her the tape boundaries. "This is your kitchen," I said, "and this (pointing to the rest of our kitchen) is mommy's kitchen. Now you can cook with your things in your kitchen and Mommy can cook with my things in my kitchen."
It was surprising how well she cleaned up her kitchen when asked and she does a wonderful job keeping all her accessories in her kitchen, not all over our kitchen. Watching her play, I saw that she loved the freedom of being able to lay out place settings on the shelf in her kitchen, put all the food on her floor if she wanted, cook her fruit in the microwave or just make hamburger/ pizza/egg sandwiches for us! Now that her kitchen had a defined area and her dishes and food had established places to be stored away....she actually liked playing with the kitchen more than when she had free run of it at Nana's house. I also noticed that she became more creative with her own play and more realistic in mimicking my cooking as well.
Giving her physical boundaries created a safe, secure place for her to explore all of her new kitchen food and dishes and play with is however she wanted. Children need boundaries in their lives. Boundaries for their play, for their behavior, for their attitudes and for their creativity. So do we!
How thankful I am thank God, in his love, gave us boundaries for our lives. His word lays out these boundaries and guidelines for us. I realize that often the times I feel the freest and the happiest are when I have changed by action or attitude based on God's guidelines. When I obey His boundaries I have freedom. His boundaries keep me safe and secure. When I try to push and strain against them though, when I try to make my own boundaries, I don't feel free....I usually end up feeling trapped, insecure and unhappy!
Today I am thanking God for this little reminder why He has given boundaries to His children!
1 comment:
Yes, this is an outstanding setup, and she sure is taking amazing pride (especially for a two year old) in keeping her kitchen orderly! I like your analogy to God's boundaries. Just this afternoon I had to say "no" to someone, because I felt that the activity was outside God's boundaries for me, and now that I've made the decision I have much peace.
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