Have them Play with Play-Doh they Say....

What is it like to make sugar flowers, or fondant figurines, without a three year old pulling on you the entire time? Or interrupting every four minutes? Or crying in the background? Or without them somehow ruining something that took you a long while to make, and you have to just take it in stride, because they are only three after all?

What is that like?

I imagine it to be freaking fondant heaven! To set aside three hours to work on a project, and actually work through those entire three hours. As opposed to squeezing maybe half that out. I would love to have none of my work destroyed by innocent little fingers. To work in peace. Ahhhhh......

So the biggest suggestion caking mamas are told is to pull out the play-doh when you are working on fondant. This works for maybe five minutes - right about until your savvy child figures out what you are up to. After all, you have "the good stuff." The nice cutters. The wide variety of fun tools - that actually work.

And it's all over.

So here they come, to your side of the counter. To "help." I have tried expounding on the merits of play-doh to no avail. I have tried playing with her to spark an interest, which lasts only as long as I'm engaged with the play-doh itself. I have tried everything. So the best that can be done is to give up a hunk of your fondant or gumpaste to the little one.

But it's like those, If you Give a Moose a Muffin books -- if you give them the fondant, they will want the good cutters, and if you give them a cutter or two, they will want your (delicate and pricey) tools. They will want everything they see on your work station. So limits will have to be set. Which will cause some crying. But not as bad if left alone to play - or to pull at your shirt, bored to death. To get around the crying, you gotta throw some positive spin in there. How "special" and "lucky" they are to be getting the "best" cutters, etc.

So if you are really lucky, and you play it all just the right way, you'll get about 10 minutes of peaceful working time at a clip. You and your little one, rolling out fondant, side by side.

As your little one grows, the time will grow. Baby steps. Until, one day, there will be no interest in fondant at all. No crying anymore either. And maybe we just might miss the madness of the days when they were little ones, seemingly gobbling up all our time and resources. Yeah, I know I will.

#playdohwhileworkingonfondant #cakingmamas #momswhobake #bakingwithkids #bakingwithpreschoolers #fondantwithkids #mamabaker