Every morning starts with the same sentence:
“Okay, today I’m the chef and you’re the helper, deal?”
He’s four. Can’t read recipes. Still says “spuh-sketti” and thinks ketchup is a fancy sauce. But the confidence? Top tier. Gordon Ramsay levels. Apron on, sleeves up, attitude locked in.
I gave him a play kitchen, thinking he’d poke at it for a week. Now it’s basically his restaurant. Plastic vegetables in the sink, fake cupcakes cooling on the shelf, and me? I get bossed around like I’m on his payroll.
“Don’t touch that, it’s hot!”
“It needs more salt. Always more salt.”
And my personal favorite—“You can sit now, but only for a little bit.”
He’s dead serious about it too. He makes me sit at his “table” and wait for my order, then proudly serves me invisible soup with a side of invisible broccoli. Sometimes, I get real food—apple slices or half a tortilla folded like a taco. One time he put shredded cheese on a banana and said it was “dessert nachos.”
I still ate it.
Because in his eyes, this is more than play. It’s his way of giving, of sharing joy. His way of being in charge of something when the world around him is still so big and confusing.
And every now and then, he crawls into my lap afterward, apron still on, hands sticky with something, and whispers, “Did you like what I made?”
Those moments melt me. No matter how many times I’ve been asked if I liked his “dessert nachos” or “invisible soup,” I can’t help but smile and say, “It was amazing, buddy.” Because in those simple moments, when he looks up at me with those big, hopeful eyes, I know it’s not about the food. It’s about the connection. It’s about him wanting to make me happy, to show me that he’s got something to offer. And in his little world, that’s everything.
But then, something unexpected happened. One afternoon, while he was “cooking” an elaborate meal that involved half a jar of peanut butter and three whole bananas, I had an idea. What if I could take his passion seriously? What if we could turn his love for cooking into something that could teach him about real food, real recipes, and even a little responsibility? The thought stayed with me, lingering in the back of my mind.
The next morning, I put my apron on with a new sense of purpose.
“Today’s going to be different,” I said, catching his attention. “How about we make something real together? You can still be the chef, but I’ll be your helper.”
His face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really?! Real food?”
“Really,” I said, smiling. “You tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
We started small, a basic pasta dish. Spaghetti with marinara sauce. It wasn’t anything fancy, but to him, it might as well have been a five-star meal.
He directed me to boil the water, add salt (always more salt, as he insisted), and even told me how long the noodles should cook. His instructions were precise, as if he were an experienced chef with years in the kitchen. The joy on his face as he told me how to stir the sauce, as he pointed to the ingredients, as he bossed me around—it was incredible. He didn’t just want to play; he wanted to do. And somehow, I was amazed at how much he understood about food, even at four years old.
We put the meal together. It wasn’t perfect—there was too much garlic and the sauce was a little thin, but it didn’t matter. It was real, and it was ours. And when we sat down to eat together, I couldn’t help but feel proud. Not of the meal—though, surprisingly, it wasn’t bad—but of him. I was watching him grow before my eyes, learning something new, taking charge, and succeeding at it in his own way.
That night, I shared the story with my partner. He laughed, but there was a hint of admiration in his voice. “You’ve got yourself a little chef there.”
But it didn’t stop there. The next day, it was pancakes. Then scrambled eggs. Then sandwiches. Every day, my little chef had a new challenge for me. And soon, he wasn’t just cooking with me—he was teaching me things. I never realized how much I didn’t know about cooking until a four-year-old was explaining the importance of seasoning or the proper technique for flipping a pancake. I found myself looking at food differently, more thoughtfully.
It was becoming a little tradition. We’d cook, we’d eat, and afterward, he’d look up at me with a proud grin, waiting for my approval. And I’d always tell him the same thing: “Best meal ever.”
But one day, everything changed. It was an ordinary Tuesday. The sun was shining, I was getting ready to make breakfast, and my son was already in the kitchen, apron on, ready to take charge. But something in the air felt different. He wasn’t as enthusiastic as usual.
“Hey, buddy, what’s up? You seem quiet today,” I asked, kneeling beside him.
He hesitated for a moment, his eyes shifting to the counter where our ingredients sat, untouched. “I don’t know if I’m a good chef,” he mumbled, his voice small.
I was taken aback. “What do you mean? You’re the best chef I know.”
“I made a mistake,” he said, his lips trembling. “I tried to make pancakes yesterday, but… I burnt them. And I don’t know if I’m a good chef anymore.”
I sat down next to him, understanding immediately what was going on. The little chef had experienced his first true failure, and it had shaken him. For someone who had always been so confident, so sure of himself, the idea that he could make a mistake was foreign to him. And it scared him.
“Buddy,” I said gently, “you don’t have to be perfect to be a good chef. Everyone makes mistakes, even the best chefs. What matters is that you keep trying.”
He looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Even if I mess up?”
“Especially if you mess up,” I smiled. “That’s when you learn the most.”
And so, we cooked that morning. It wasn’t a flawless meal. There was a little bit of burnt toast, the eggs were a bit runny, but the joy in the kitchen was more than enough to make up for it. My son smiled as I praised his efforts, telling him how proud I was of him for getting back into the kitchen after making a mistake.
It was a lesson for both of us: failure wasn’t the end, but just another part of the process. Cooking, like life, wasn’t about getting everything right all the time—it was about showing up, trying your best, and learning from your mistakes. It was about having the courage to get back into the kitchen, even when things didn’t go as planned.
But the twist, the karmic part of this whole story, came a few weeks later. My son had been practicing more and more, becoming more confident, even starting to experiment with recipes on his own. And then one day, when I was particularly exhausted after a long day at work, he pulled a surprise on me.
“I made you dinner, Mom,” he said, smiling brightly. “You’re the guest today.”
He had made a simple pasta dish, just like we had started with. It wasn’t fancy, but it was delicious. As I sat at the table, watching him proudly present the meal he had made all on his own, I realized that the kitchen had taught us both something important. He had learned that it was okay to fail, and I had learned to appreciate the joy of sharing and encouraging someone else to grow.
And in that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Gratitude for my son, for his spirit, for the way he taught me more than I could ever have taught him. And most of all, gratitude for the fact that sometimes, we need to let go of our own fears and insecurities in order to see the beautiful potential in those we love.
So, the next time you find yourself facing failure, or if someone you love does, remember: mistakes are just stepping stones. They don’t define us—they help us grow.
If you’ve ever had a moment where you learned from someone unexpected, share it with others. Let them know that growth doesn’t always come from success—it often comes from those little failures, the ones that teach us the most.
