Little kids often think it’s fun to help older kids and adults.

For example, little kids sometimes like to “help” in the kitchen.

The “help” often isn’t actually help but more of making a mess and playing with the ingredients while the whole cooking or baking process takes longer.

In today’s story, one woman’s teenage niece is baking in their kitchen.

She’s wondering if she should’ve let her 4-year-old daughter help her bake.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for not letting my daughter help my niece bake?

So I (23F) have a 4-year-old daughter, Mia, and a 14-year-old niece, Sophie.

Sophie and her parents live a few minutes away, so she visits pretty often.

Sophie likes to bake, sometimes for fun and sometimes to sell.

We let her come over while the house is empty so she can have a clear and quiet place to bake.

Mia wanted to help Sophie bake.

This time though she was on short notice to make cupcakes for her friend’s sister’s birthday, so we were all at home this time.

My toddler, Mia, loves to help me in the kitchen whenever I cook, and she got very excited when she saw Sophie in there, baking alone.

Mia kept asking if she could help, and I told her, “Not this time, sweetheart, I need to let Sophie do this herself.”

She was disappointed, but I thought it was important for Sophie to feel independent, and frankly, I didn’t think Mia was old enough to safely handle baking on her own. It can be messy, and I didn’t want to have to clean it.

Her fiance was upset when he saw that Mia wasn’t allowed to help.

Well, my fiance came home shortly after and immediately saw Mia’s meltdown.

He asked me why I didn’t let Mia help, and I explained my reasoning—Sophie is older, more capable of managing in the kitchen without needing supervision.

Also she wasn’t baking only for fun, she was taking them to a party and needed to get this done quickly.

My fiance was really upset with me, saying that Sophie should let Mia help, and she should do this because we are always letting her use our kitchen.

That Mia never helps so it’s not like we’re constantly asking her to let Mia bake and she can sacrifice this one time.

She wonders if she should’ve let Mia help.

I don’t think that’s fair to Sophie.

She’s a baker not a babysitter.

But now he’s sulking and says I’m being unfair to Mia by not letting her participate.

Am I wrong to not let her help?

I think she made the right decision.

Little kids like to help, but their “help” generally means the whole process takes a lot longer.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This reader thinks the fiance should bake with Mia if he thinks it’s that important.

It only would’ve been okay if Sophie liked the idea of Mia helping.

It was the right decision to let Sophie bake alone.

This person points out how “gross” it can be to cook with little kids.

Mia could bake something later.

Little children aren’t exactly helpful in the kitchen!

It’s ok to involve them sometimes, but not when you’re in a hurry or really need to execute a recipe correctly.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.