Why Parenting is Like Julia Child's Cooking Show
Not long ago, I watched the Julia series on HBO Max. It’s all about Julia Child and how she came to have a cooking show on PBS and eventually became a world renowned cooking expert. It was really fun to watch (excellent period costumes and sets too!) and I can’t wait for season #2 to drop in a couple weeks.
The recipes she made were complicated, often sophisticated, and usually difficult to execute. She made the fancy French dishes look easy and almost effortless and with her show she helped millions learn to cook at home.
But here’s something else I noticed about Julia’s story. She didn’t do it alone. Of course there was a big staff of directors and crew who put that original PBS show together, but even the cooking itself wasn’t done alone. During the show’s filming - which all happened live with no editing back then - she had people crouched down behind the counter next to her to help. They handed her ingredients, took away dishes, and made sure the whole thing ran like clockwork. It was almost like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat when someone was inside the hat providing the rabbit!
Turns out there’s photo evidence of how it worked on Julia’s actual show.
^^ There’s Julia on live TV in all of her charming effervescence. And there are all the other staffers silently helping to make it happen – literally behind the scenes. When I saw this, all I could think was how perfectly this illustrates the experience of parenting a child who struggles. So here’s my serious question.
How is parenting like Julia Child’s cooking show?
We all need assistance. We shouldn’t have to do it alone. Parenting is a lot. Too many of us don’t have the support we need so of course we feel alone. It’s especially hard when our child is struggling at school, is neurodiverse, or needs extra support. Then we really need those helping hands to get us through, to provide insight, to be a source of information and to offer suggestions.
Gathering talented people around us helps us shine. We don’t have to know everything as parents. It’s OK to ask for help and accept that we’re all learning all the time. If we bring in others - professionals, peers, friends – it’s not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength to get ourselves the support we need to be the best parent we can be.
We all have different skills to contribute. We don’t have to know everything all the time! And we all have unique strengths to bring to a challenge or parenting situation. So why not bring in others who have different skills too? It makes our parenting stronger.
The product is a sum of many parts. See how many people are in that photo? It took that many people to help her cook those complicated dishes. Parenting a complicated kid or in a complicated situation - that might take a lot of people to get involved too. What’s our end goal? A happy and successful child who becomes a happy and successful adult. The end product will be stronger because of all the others we bring in to help us on that path.
What do you think? Wish you had a whole crew of folks working behind the scenes to help you and your family succeed? Over time, I’ve gathered the professionals our family needed, but it wasn’t always easy. If you want help figuring out how to build your team of supporters, I offer 1:1 coaching to help you get there too.
