One of the hardest problems our mothers face in their daily life with their children is the problem of the child's eating. How often have I heard a mother declare to a friend of hers that mealtime is the hardest time of the day! In our country the mother does not breathe freely until the meal is over, and it is usually accomplished only with great effort on the mother's part. How many times have some mothers' nerves flared up at their children for refusing to eat with the appetite the mother desires?! And how many times has a mother lost all patience and gone so far as to strike the child and force him to eat — and the child sat there, between sobs and tears, eating against his will!!
These are scenes we have known and pass through every day, so much so that many of us are unable to solve the problem in
an effective psychological way... "The Woman's Voice" has thought to surround this subject with scientific study and to offer a few suggestions, in the hope that they may be of use to those of our mothers whom the matter concerns...
Educators hold that one of the most important ways of interesting the child where food is concerned is to let him share in the cooking with his mother.
This does not mean his taking part in stuffing the mahshi, or in lahm bi-ajin, and other such complicated dishes!! Yet even in these two dishes there is wide room for the child to feel that he has a hand in the cooking, and this feeling guarantees a full meal which the child eats with wonderful appetite, of his own accord.
It is enough to give our child the notion that we need his help, and he enters the kitchen with his apron tied at the waist. We must make certain that the knife he holds is of the kind that does not cut well, that he is kept far from the danger of the fire... and that he is always under our supervision. In mahshi, for example, we can let him finish the job by cutting the caps off the squash or the eggplant, or by lifting them from the water one by one and placing them in the "pot" after they are stuffed, ready for cooking... And in lahm bi-ajin a child of five can lift the rounds of dough — indeed, often enough he can even fill them, imitating his mother with wonderful skill!
Boys' desire to cook is in no way less than girls'; and it is a fine thing to endear this craft to boys, so that there grows in them an inclination to distinguish between