My Best Pandemic Parenting Secret Is Selena Gomez’s Cooking Show

“Do you want to watch Elmo?” I ask my two-year-old son, hopeful that the fine folks at Sesame Street will give me a moment of reprieve.

“No!”

“What about Dora?” I plead. 

“Nope!” he replies.

Low on options and desperate for some form of entertainment for him that doesn't require me to buck work responsibilities, ignore looming deadlines, or spend 100% of my time on the floor with him, I start to panic. That's when he cries “Eena! Eena!” and points to the HBO Max app on the television screen.

And just like that, I am saved thanks to a 28-year-old pop star, actor, and cooking novice.

Selena + Chef—a quarantine cooking show in which Selena Gomez is paired with a professional chef who teaches her to cook elaborate recipes from the safety and comfort of their respective homes—first aired on August 13, 2020. “When the pandemic happened, I pretty much was terrified, and then as time went by, I wanted to do something fun and I love cooking,” Gomez told singer and chef Kelis Rogers during episode five of season two.

Gomez—along with a few friends and her maternal grandparents, who all live with the singer in her new, $4.9 million 11,500 square-foot estate in Encino, California—stumbles through some truly impressive dishes. She mistakes her gas stove for electric while learning to make the perfect French omelet with French chef Ludo Lefebvre. She sets parchment paper on fire while roasting asparagus with Nancy Silverton. She makes the mistake of pouring water in a pot of hot oil and burnt garlic while making a hamburger and deconstructed Caesar salad with Graham Elliott. At the end of every episode, Gomez donates $10,000 to a charity of the celebrity chef’s choice.

As a TV cooking show aficionado—Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, and The Great British Baking Show are my favorites—I was hardly surprised by how much I enjoyed Selena + Chef. What caught me off guard, however, was how the show also completely captured the attention of my toddler.

Part of the reason for my child’s obsession lies with Selena’s now signature colorful bowls and knives. (Lefebre says her bowls are the colors of the movie Trolls, and her rainbow-colored knife set has spawned its own Instagram account.) Gomez’s songs play at random moments throughout the episode as well, and yes, my child bops along to all of them.

“Children are fascinated by this show because it has many aspects that appeal to them,” Karen Caraballo, Psy.D., a clinical child and family psychologist, tells me. “The food is visually appealing, and children generally prefer plates with more elements and colors. The music, for children, indicates fun and playtime, so you might see your kids dancing and singing during the show.”

Like the iconic Sesame Street, Selena + Chef has made use of production elements that meet toddlers where they’re at developmentally. For example, one 1994 study published in The Journal of Genetic Psychology found that kids have positive reactions to bright colors, like pinks, reds, and blues—hence my son's fascination with Selena’s Coachella-like knives that resulted in my purchasing a set. “The colors from food, the background—white background with contrast with clothes, nails, and food—and Selena’s knives boost creativity and excitement,” Caraballo explains.

And the repetitive nature of the show—every episode is set up the same—plays into the sense of safety repetition gives young children, which is why I’ve now spent more than six months of my pandemic parenting experience watching Gomez differentiate between a tablespoon and a teaspoon.

I’m not the only mom reaping the benefits of Selena + Chef’s low-key popularity among the country’s toddlers. “My daughter absolutely loves Selena + Chef and was completely sucked in from the first episode,” Katie Jones, 38, says of her five-year-old. “She has talked nonstop about how she cannot wait to open up her restaurant when she gets older.” Jones says her daughter’s favorite part of the show is Gomez’s colorful knives and bowls, as well as Gomez herself, who she thinks is “really funny and pretty.” But it’s what her daughter’s enthusiasm for the show has given Jones that has been the most meaningful.

“I have been off of work for the past month for surgery,” she says. “I unfortunately contracted COVID after it and have been down for the count with double-lung pneumonia. [The show] has provided great relief—to be able to have her turn it on while I relax and catch some much-needed [sleep].”

The show provides kids of all ages with a slew of benefits too. A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that children who watch cooking shows that feature healthy foods are twice as likely to eat healthy foods themselves when compared with kids who don’t watch those shows or watch shows featuring unhealthy foods.

“For older kids, it’s also great because they can actually learn cooking tips,” Caraballo adds. “Most importantly, they can learn growth-mindset attitudes, as in, they believe they can learn, take risks, try things even if they don’t know how to do them, and enjoy, laugh, and have fun during the process.”

As the pandemic continues and parents, predominately Black and brown working moms, are overworked, undersupported, and overwhelmed arguably more than ever before, what we do to find a moment of solace—or even just an opportunity to cross something off our never-ending to-do list—has evolved. In a world of wrenching unknowns and uncertainty, it's nice to have a few new tools in my parenting tool kit. When Elmo and Dora fail, thank God I have Selena Gomez. 

Danielle Campoamor is an award-winning freelance writer and editor whose work can been seen in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and on CNN, NBC, and others. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and two sons.

Originally Appeared on Glamour