Does this still stress you now?

Fallingstar

What I do find stressful is an open plan kitchen where people can wander about and expect you to make conversation whilst you are frantically trying to get everything cooked at the same time. My DD has this set up and hates it too for the same reason, they just got blown along with the whole ‘make food and be involved with your guests’ twaddle.

That’s in all of the house makeover programmes. I think people fantasise about looking like Nigella Lawson. The last thing I’d want is for people to watch me getting flustered in the kitchen ( not that I have ‘guests’ anyway). My DIL wants to open up their kitchen so she can chat to the kids after school when she’s cooking. If they’re anything like mine were they’ll just want to slump in front of the tv after a day at school. You can do your chatting when eating I would have thought.

I have a large island in my kitchen, I am used to having family and friends sitting round it whilst I am preparing/cooking.

Before that we had a table and chairs, children (when young) and now grandchildren when they are here do their homework in the kitchen. I find it both sociable and somewhat comforting.

ferry23

You know you're a grown up when the realisation dawns that you've got to think of what to have dinner every day for the rest of your life.

😱😱😱😱

I absolutely love love love open plan! We had it our lodge and I realised just how much I like it. No the be lodge is no more and we spend the next 18 months or so preparing this house to be sold, I’ll be looking for an open plan flat with just two bedrooms and two bathrooms and off street parking!

ferry23

You know you're a grown up when the realisation dawns that you've got to think of what to have dinner every day for the rest of your life.

........and there's no-one to do the prep and cooking but yourself. That brings you down to earth alright.

Gran22boys

I loathe cooking and having a fussy DH doesn’t help. When people say they cook in advance or batch cook what do they do? I have no imagination when it comes to cooking.

Perhaps we need a thread with easy bulk-cook meal recipes to cook in one go and then freeze in meal-sized portions?

Bit of a first world problem to be honest!

I hate food waste, so always planned meals and shopping so that at the end of the weeks there’s next to nothing in the fridge. I’ve done this all my adult life, with children and now retired. Having a large freezer now means I can freeze a lot. Bread, batch cook meals, veg and even birthday cake. My routine now is to plan meals and shopping for the week on a Sunday, and shop on Monday. I hardly have to shop in between. My DH does not do the same breakfast and lunch, he’s a grazer, but we have the same evening meal, he has pudding and I don’t. It works really well. Batch cook, things like Chilli, spag Bol, lasagna, stews and casserole, curry’s and breaded chicken. Now it’s soup season I will be doing this too.

Calendargirl

Apparently, nowadays, family meals often involve cooking different dishes for different family members.

Not in my day it didn’t.

Why? 🤷‍♀️ No wonder everything is such a big deal.

We all ate the same meal, DH, two children and me.

Some meals more popular than others, but on the whole, it worked pretty well.

No one too fussy, each of us didn’t like certain foods, but we managed, and little food waste.

Sometimes I think things are over complicated these days.

Exactly. In a family of seven there was no way my mum was going to cook to accommodate different fads preferences. No-one need bring up allergies; there weren't any but of course they would have been taken into consideration had there been.

When one of us asked why we didn't get a choice, my dad said: "You always have a choice. The choice is eat it or don't eat it."

Parents? Women.

My mother was quite a good cook and enjoyed cooking and baking She just cooked what we liked to eat. So there was little waste.

Cooked stews that lasted for a a few days. And shopped for fresh food on a daily basis at the local shops. Freshly baked loaves of bread and cakes from a local bakery.

Always had a roast dinner on Sunday. Leg of Lamb, Pork or Beef joint from a local butcher

She worked part time so had time to do it.

The only take away was Fish and Chips maybe once a week from a local chippy

Can also remember life before we had a fridge. Milk delivered early every morning by the Milk Man.

She was a real whiz with a pressure cooker which was the Air Fryer of its day.

Happy Family Memories.
God Bless You Mother
Xxx

It didn’t stress me then and it doesn’t’t now. When I was young we ate what we were given. When Ihad children we ate together and all had the same meal. Give or take things like one child hated liver, the other avocado. Now there is just DH and me, I make a list of meals for the week and buy accordingly. No stress whatsoever

15 working (8 hour) days = 120 hours out of a year. That to me doesn't seem a great deal of time. Wonder how many spend having nails, eyebrows, hair done? How many out at the gyms following sport? With fridge/freezers, microwaves, airfryers, supermarket home deliveries surely making a meal for after school has never been easier.

When I had school age children, I did not find planning and cooking stressful. I used to like cooking. I really do not like it now and find it hard work. I have been shopping, cooking and clearing up for over 50 years and wish I did not have to do it any more.

My husband and I shared all the shopping, meal planning and cooking. I worked part time when my daughters were small.
I'm mid 60s now and would have expected this to be the norm in most households in the 90s/2000s.

Since remarrying I have regained my love of cooking/baking. I used to cook from scratch everyday plus hold down a demanding management role. Both my kids loved their food and ate everything. My son now is more fussy since getting married to someone who cant cook, but my daughter can cook and will try anything. My new husband loves my cooking be it s simple meal or something more elaborate. He always eats with enthusiasm and thanks me for every meal 😊 Different to my exh who I don't recall ever thanking me for s meal in the 4p+ years we were married!! Fortunately my children were more polite and appreciative. I also bake bread every 3 days now and am trying healthy cakes etc using yoghurt (which we both hate but don't notice in cooking) replacement or better fats to help with cholesterol and eat healthily. At mid 70s my husband goes to the gym regularly and we both take a good long walk everyday. I think a lot of patents now don't get cookery lessons we had at school so don't have the "tools" to cook from scratch. That said cooking for people who enjoy foid and appreciate it makes it a much more pleasant task. Just wish I could master poached eggs as well as our favourite breakfast treat cafe does them 🤔

40+ years......

I love cooking too although most days there's just the two of us now. When the children were young I cooked for five from scratch every day and don't remember finding it particularly stressful. I worked full time as well.
Not sure i understand why this is a back to termtime issue? Don't they eat in the school holidays?

I thought they all had Gusto and Hello Fresh deliveries now days. That must take the “stress” out of it.

I love cooking for just the two of us now. Though it was obviously more time consuming when I had four children and lodgers at home I did still enjoy it, it's rewarding to know that you're doing the best to feed them well.

My husband likes fairly simple food and sadly doesn't like brassicas or spinach, but it's easy enough to work around that. Sadly he isn't a cook, though he's very handy as a sous chef and washer-up.

If you shop online it's hardly arduous to give a few minutes thought to what you need this week, and a freezer gives you the freedom to freeze something you don't want to eat now, or to choose an alternative.

My mother was a good cook, not producing fancy food but it was always delicious.

Luckily I love cooking and I do the majority of cooking and planning because I can't stand the mess that DH leaves if he does it.
I find stuff dripped down the cupboard doors, greasy fingerprints on handles, stirring spoons just left on the worktop and crumbs in drawers he hasn't shut properly. The most irritating thing though is the used cups and empty food wrappers left on the draining board which is just above the dishwasher and right next to the bin!!

Cossy

I absolutely love love love open plan! We had it our lodge and I realised just how much I like it. No the be lodge is no more and we spend the next 18 months or so preparing this house to be sold, I’ll be looking for an open plan flat with just two bedrooms and two bathrooms and off street parking!

Just what we've downsized to Cossy! I love it too.

Geordiegirl1

Parents? Women.

Exactly

Yes.I think there is too much fussing with children today.

Interestingly, when I was a Mum with two children I don’t remember feeling at all stressed about what to cook.
I chose it, cooked it and they ate it.
Now tho I find planning meals for the two of us a bore and a chore.