Cut kids' food with kitchen scissors, not a knife
Pizza, pancakes, chicken, spaghetti — scissors are faster, safer, and work on a plate you're holding.
eric has done this
You're at a table with a two-year-old and a slice of pizza. You need it in eight pieces, now, because the countdown to a meltdown started when the plate landed. So you saw at it with the side of a fork, or you go find a knife and a second plate and a surface to press against, dragging cheese off in a long string the whole way.
What you need
- Kitchen shears — a dedicated pair, not the junk-drawer scissors. The kind that come apart at the hinge so they go in the dishwasher.
- A small travel pair — optional, but a folding pair in the diaper bag covers restaurants and birthday parties.
Do this
- Hold the food up, or leave it on the plate. You don't need a cutting board or a flat surface — that's most of the advantage.
- Snip pizza into strips, then across into squares. About four seconds.
- Same move for chicken, pancakes, waffles, quesadillas, hot dogs (cut lengthwise first, then across — round coins are a choking shape).
- For spaghetti, snip straight down into the bowl a few times.
- Rinse them right away, or run them through the dishwasher if they come apart.
What changes
Food gets cut in about a quarter of the time, one-handed, without a cutting board — which means it happens at the table before the crying starts. Keep the shears in the drawer nearest where you plate food, not with the knives.
The hot dog note above is not a style preference. Coins are the classic choking shape; lengthwise-then-across is not.
