Filming My Kid’s Cooking Lessons Taught Me a New Way of Storytelling

How Instagram stories became a creative outlet for this unwitting stay-at-home mom

Less than a week into quarantine, I plopped my 2-year-old son on my kitchen counter, placed a small bowl next to him, and handed him an egg.

“Bang it on the counter,” I instructed.

Basically overnight, I went from a satisfying and suitably lucrative career as a freelance writer and editor to stay-at-home motherhood. After reading countless books and a few stints with Play-Doh and markers and crayons, both Arthur and I were uninspired.

‘Mama draw a penguin,’ my toddler insisted. You can see why our artistic pursuits did not pan out.

I was also uninspired in the kitchen. I worried that two of my favorite things — cooking and baking — would morph into drudgery because, apart from occasional takeout from our favorite local restaurants, I had no choice but to come up with three squares for my family of three.

Which is how I wound up instructing my child to smash an egg off a slab of quartzite. I figured that cooking with Arthur would kill a bunch of birds with one stone: Meals would get made, he would be entertained and educated, and filming Arthur’s cooking lessons would give me an opportunity to tell a story.