No Time for Cookies

by Anita S. Lane

We used to make. Now we just bake.

I recently saw a commercial with the image of a loving mother and child cuddled around the oven placing pre-made, pre-cut holiday cookies on a baking sheet. The voiceover makes the statement, “it's not about baking cookies, it's about creating holiday memories.”

That’s true. Holiday cookies are a special part of the holiday season. But whatever happened to flour, sugar, eggs and mixing bowls? I guess the end result is the same, but for some reason I was particularly struck by imagery in this commercial. I don’t know why. After all, I use pre-made cookie dough all the time.

Yet for some reason I felt slightly convicted while watching this commercial. Sure, the experience for mom and child was probably warm & fuzzy and it was quality time—all five minutes of it. However, I began to think of all the lessons my children miss out on when I don’t take the time to make—not just bake, cookies.

Making cookies from scratch is an opportunity to practice valuable life skills with a child—assembling ingredients, reading, counting, measuring, mixing, as well as patience—because it takes longer than the five minutes it takes to place pre-cut cookies on a baking sheet.

So why don’t we take the time to bake cookies from scratch? I’m concerned that not only are most of us too busy, but we no longer see the value in investing that sort of quality time with our children. After helping with homework, there’s not much “quality time” to go around, right?

Maybe. But this holiday season let’s give it a try. Dust off the mixer, pull out the aprons, and take a little extra time to make some special holiday cookies—or even a cake! It may not become an every week affair, but you just might rekindle the joy that comes from baking from scratch—the kind of joy we experienced while baking with our moms and grandmas. Remember licking the bowl? You’ll enjoy a little extra quality time and create lasting memories for your children as well—the kind of memories you only get when you take the time to make, and not just bake.

Copyright ©2004 by Anita S. Lane