Keep Mother's Day simple

May 11—CANTON — Mother's Day is nearly here.

The holiday can be stressful for parents with children too young to have disposable income.

Will the macaroni necklace brought home from school be enough? Can the kids just sign a card? Will breakfast in bed, prepared by the kids, be edible?

More research is needed on the efficacy of macaroni necklaces, and everyone knows a card is not enough.

There is, however, help for those who want to serve a kid-produced breakfast in bed.

Wanda Collins, a senior nutritionist for the SNAP-ED program at Cornell Cooperative Extension, said moms and dads must consider the children's age to determine a menu.

"Not every child should have access to everything in the kitchen," she said.

Children younger than 5 years old shouldn't have access to the oven or stove, she said, or cutting utensils.

"They can put together overnight oats," she said, referring to the website snapedny.org, where several overnight oat recipes are posted.

She suggested serving the oats in a mason jar that the kids could decorate.

Many of the same safety rules apply to kids older than 5. However, children that age should be capable of spreading peanut butter on toast.

"They could help with a smoothie," she said. "We have a boatload of smoothie recipes, like banana and peanut butter or banana and berries. There's a shamrock smoothie that has spinach in it. That's really tasty. So the kids can put the stuff in the blender, parents make sure that the top is on it, and then they get to press the button."

Collins suggested avocado toast or a fruit pizza on an English muffin.

The best part of a Mother's Day breakfast is that the kids make it; even if it is a little sloppy, it is still a special treat.

Collins said one of her most memorable Mother's Days was when her children baked a cake.

"When they went to take it out of the pan, it stuck, so half the bottom of the cake was still in the pan," she said. They were trying, and I just loved it. I didn't care. They made me a cake. What do I care? It tasted really good. So what do you care if it looks a little odd?"

Ashley Campbell, who runs Trout and Heron, a land-based school in West Potsdam that offers academic and hands-on learning experiences for elementary students from kindergarten through grade five, said keeping it simple is key.

"I think I've learned from being a mom myself that it's better to have low-stress things," Campbell said. " Do something really simple. Just get some skewers and make some fruit kabobs. That's something most ages can do."

Or you could just make a fruit salad, she said.

Campbell also suggested overnight oats or a yogurt parfait.

"Just add layers of granola and whatever fruit you have on hand," she said, "berries typically go pretty well, but you could also use melons or get creative and use some citrus or apple. It's OK to use what you have on hand."

Campbell uses kid-friendly cutters and noted that many fruits can be cut with a butter knife.

It can get more complicated if your children are older.

"If you want to get really fancy, you could always do something like chocolate-dipped strawberries, which add that special kind of pizzazz to a fancy Mother's Day breakfast, but it can get messy," she said.

Campbell also likes a treat that uses yogurt and the freezer.

"You just get parchment paper and a cookie sheet, and you spread Greek yogurt or whatever yogurt you have on hand on the parchment sheet," Campbell said." It"s basically like a pizza you're going to put in the freezer. Spread the yogurt and then decorate it with berries, granola, or whatever you have — sprinkles of chocolate chips. Put it in the freezer overnight. In the morning, you break it up into pieces and we call it frozen yogurt bark."

Campbell said that last year, her daughter made her breakfast, which consisted of toast with butter and a little jam.

"She didn't know how to make coffee, so she put ice cubes in water," she said. "Her pride and joy was that she did it herself."