It rained all day last Saturday and the kids were climbing the back of the couch. I decided we should bake cookies from scratch. I thought it would kill at least an hour and keep them focused.
I pulled a dining chair over to the counter so my oldest could help measure the flour. That was a mistake. He dumped a full cup of all purpose flour directly onto the floor instead of into the bowl. A white cloud went up and coated the front of the dishwasher. The baby immediately crawled through it and left white handprints all over the lower cabinets.
We managed to get the dough mixed but I forgot to soften the butter first. The mixer just pushed cold hard lumps of butter around the glass bowl. I tried mashing it with a fork and gave up. We baked them anyway. They spread out into thin greasy puddles on the metal sheet.
Nobody cared. The kids ate the flat cookies straight off the cooling rack. They were mostly just excited to eat warm sugar. The floor was still covered in flour three hours later because I did not want to drag the heavy vacuum out while the baby was napping.
If you bake with toddlers, do not expect it to look like a recipe video. Just use a cheap box mix. It saves you from measuring flour and the cookies actually keep their shape. I am still wiping white dust off my kitchen drawers.