How to Entertain Children While Making Dinner

If you're looking for ways to entertain children while making dinner, we'll give you some great ideas in this article. Keep reading to find out more.
How to Entertain Children While Making Dinner

Written by Óscar Dorado

Last update: 28 November, 2022

As a mother, surely it isn’t easy to keep your kids busy while doing tasks at home. Since we know this is a hard part of being a mom, in this article, we’ll show you how to entertain children while making dinner. Take note, and choose your favorite tip!

Choosing what to make for dinner is always very complicated for moms. However, keeping children happy and busy while making dishes is often a challenge in itself. This is especially true for babies because they need constant supervision. In general, they have a lot more needs.

Regardless of how you choose to entertain children while making dinner, the most important thing to remember is to keep your children in sight. Even when older siblings are playing, the responsibility to keep your kids safe falls on you.

So, here’s a quick list of simple ideas to entertain children while making dinner. Choose your favorite!

How to entertain children while making dinner

1. Draw on the dishwasher

The first tip is letting your children draw on the dishwasher. Yes, you read that right. However, you can turn your dishwasher into a dry erase board with markers. You can use dry erase markers on non-porous surfaces like whiteboards, glass, plastic and windows.

You have nothing to worry about because you can easily erase the drawings with water and a towel, just like with a dry erase board. To get an additional advantage, when you’re done, give your children a bowl of water and have them wipe down the dishwasher when they’re done.

How to Entertain Children While Making Dinner

2. Play in the sink

Children love water! It might be a good idea to have your children stand on a stool in front of the sink while the water runs to keep them busy. Just fill up a cup and dump it over and over again. You just need to keep towels handy for when they spill water on the floor.

3. Interactive and educational applications and websites

Not all technology is harmful to young children. In fact, educational applications and websites can be extremely entertaining to kids for a long period of time.

There are so many to choose from that you’ll have to do a little research to find the best ones for your children. We’re sure your children will love them!

4. Toys to entertain children while making dinner

Without a doubt, there are some toys that kids like more than others, and that are reserved only for special moments, for example, when mom is making dinner. We recommend storing some of your kids’ favorite toys and only letting them use them while you’re cooking. That way, you can entertain them while you make dinner.

5. Help you make dinner

Finally, you should know that young children love to feel like they’re helping at home. This means that they’ll probably love helping in the kitchen. Cooking activities for children, like stirring (whatever is appropriate for their age), washing dishes and setting the table will keep them happy and busy.

How to Entertain Children While Making Dinner

We also recommend finding easy tasks for your children, like washing vegetables, tearing lettuce leaves for salad, stirring or even measuring ingredients. They can also help set the table so that they stay busy while you watch them. This way, they’ll be really productive, and you’ll have unique and exceptional kitchen assistants.

As you can see, there are many ways to entertain children while making dinner. Just keep these tips in mind and choose your favorite. In any case, we hope that from now on, you know how to keep them busy. What are you waiting for? You won’t regret trying these out!


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


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This text is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace consultation with a professional. If in doubt, consult your specialist.