I've been making hamantaschen for as long as I can remember. I think our kids could say the same thing. I certainly have photo evidence of our children helping to make these delicious Purim cookies starting from a very young age...having to stand on a chair to reach the counter, sippy cup and snack right next to the dough, or sitting in a highchair with a rolling pin!
I also remember from my childhood, and I expect my children would too, that just being little did not mean that we expected messy hamantaschen. Nope! For better or worse, kids baking hamantaschen were carefully watched and helped to put the right amount of filling, and do the right amount of pinching so that the hamantaschen shape would come out right. That's not to say every single one was perfect, but we sure tried to make most of them come out looking like a fully formed triangle with a good amount of filling. We set high expectations and helped kids meet them.
Now, with young kids there's inevitably an extra mess with baking and some extra negotiation ("I want to add the vanilla!", "No, it's my turn to put it in. He did the last thing!"), but I was willing to take this on for the idea of making this traditional food together. Truth be told, if they got tired of helping after a few cookies, I was fine with letting them go and finishing the rest myself. It was less intense because I could let down my careful watching and just do it.
But this year, I realized how all of those years of doing it together has yielded kids who can really make hamantaschen! Our 12 year old followed the recipe and basically made the dough on his own. When it was ready to roll out, the kids took the lead, knew what tools were needed, filled with minimal oversight from me, figured out how many of each filling to make, and pinched the corners with some expertise. There were still a few misshapen hamantaschen, but it was a pleasure to bake with them. I'm glad I stuck it out all those years to get to this point.
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