Last week a mom friend asked me eagerly whether I’ve bought for Bean a kitchen set yet – the way she asked me was as if she was inquiring whether Bean has weaned or gotten all her molar teeth! It made me realize that to many kids, having a kitchen set is kind of a growth milestone. It may very well be considered so – they are just starting to pretend play at the age of two, and I have a theory that they like to pretend cooking because it’s the most common activity they see moms doing and want to copy. I thought I’d do a review of the ones I have seen in Hong Kong in case you are looking!

Clearly we haven’t bothered to buy this toy for ourselves yet – among many reasons one is the hefty price tags for many kitchen sets in the toy stores (some of them cost HK$1500-$2000 depending on the shop!!!) I personally think very few toys deserve an investment of US$100-200, and the kitchen set isn’t one because the kids don’t play with it long enough (please prove me wrong if you think otherwise!) It’s also a big commitment in terms of space- if big it’s a like a piece of furniture that sticks out somewhere in our house. Another thing, I am also utterly put off by the garish pink colors of many kitchen sets I see. Why, in this day and age, are kitchen sets and ironing sets and cooking sets still designed to target only girls (obvious in the choice of color and imageries)? (I’ll have another post only about the contentious subject of gender-neutral toys as I have so much to vent on that!)

In any case, these are some more reasonable choices I have found after mucking around a bit – please share with me if you know of other good options. Right now, I’m thinking of making one from felt (a rectangular sheet with two concentric circles drawn on them may pass as stoves?), if not I’ll upgrade to the canvas kitchen set from Little Active Mind (above). Isn’t it so clever and cute!!! (plus it comes from a Hong Kong mompreneur and I’m all for supporting fellow moms and small businesses in Hong Kong (Disclaimer: I know Tarana but the endorsement is totally my own 🙂