Is parenting & cooking similar?

Perhaps Yes.

Perhaps no.

Perhaps Similar.

Though it’s my favourite vegetable, it's over spicy today.

Dal was yummm but you forgot to add salt.

Really mom, Tinda……? No way.

What a combination of lauki & shimla…really, just tasteless.

Paneer looks very good but don’t you think oil is extra.

These are some daily dialogues one can listen to in any family. You 


See, same person cooking with years of experience still there are ifs & but, sometimes something is less and other times it’s extra but let me also tell you there is nothing like perfect but a balance of all the ingredients which makes a dish taste good. Both over and less affect the recipe. Just imagine if a simple dish gets affected with more or less, how much it is essential to understand when to when not to, how much is not too much.


Parenting has no specific pattern but specific people as decision makers i.e. mother & father. Parenting actually is nothing to do with the third person be this a teacher, counselor or psychologist. And if a third party is needed, let’s admit that the imbalanced ingredients have affected the taste already. 


Parenting has no definite definition as each child is unique and vary from one extreme to the other on various levels and in different ways, See, we pour more or less same basic ingredients like salt, turmeric, chili powder, cumin seeds, mustered seeds etc but each vegetable needs different steps like- you cut bottle gourd and fry it but you cut bitter gourd and leave it for rest after adding salt just to reduce the bitterness before cooking. In the same way there can’t be a certain strategy for parenting however awareness can be one of the basic ingredients.


Parenting has no such recipe that communicates measurable quantities anybody will use as per instruction and come out with a perfect pudding having the same taste. But I’ll say parenting is a long term project, not an instant recipe but more like a cooking process and we are free to add special ingredients to get desired flavour. Let's talk about the essential ingredients of parenting-

Purpose, Knowledge, Understanding & Passion


Before you jump to pour how much and when, before you struggle to get everything you would require & rush on eleventh hour, prepare yourself and ask a few questions-

What do you want your child to be?

What qualities do you want your child to inculcate?

Do you have everything you need?

What preparation do you need for the same?


So both cooking & parenting may appear similar but not necessarily similar. But both need a deep understanding, attentiveness and of course patience as cooking is a short term activity you may cook again if it doesn't taste proper while parenting is a long term project long term  outcome, with no U turn.


At the end both will taste better if you knew when & how much.


-Manisha

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