Does this still stress you now?

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.

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.

Gg13
That’s about it for me too.
It was reading the original post on netmums about someone having time to do research and finding out that planning meals is yet another stress for parents on top of getting the children back to school, that had me puzzled.
As if that’s something new!
On rereading the article I discovered that the research had been done by Mindful Chef UK. A bit of free advertising on netmums?

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.

I enjoy cooking, DH is a good cook but needs a shove in the direction of the kitchen lately 😹

We have GC sleeping over at least twice a week (often three times, different GC).

Today I have made a cauldron of ragout, tonight I will make a lasagne the rest will be frozen in individual portions for can’t be bothered nights

So in answer to the OP, no I do not stress over meal planning, and if I really cannot be bothered we go out (apologies if that seems boasty, but it’s just as it is)

It seems obvious to me that if a husband and wife are both working, or both retired, they should take equal responsibility for cooking. I made sure my sons could cook enough to be useful. Even my father, born 1907, learnt to cook after my mother became disabled.

What stresses me is having to meal plan and include another person. I know what I fancy eating and know how much I want to eat and that changes from day to day ( I’m into soup at the moment having come out of my salad phase). Since I stopped meal planning for both my partner and myself a year ago I’ve lost a stone ( we don’t live together all of the time). I hate cooking!

I do like eating out but find I am disappointed with some things I order from the menu and end up paying a lot for it.

I wish my husband would plan meals and cook. I like cooking and cook from scratch but sometimes I would be happy with a piece of toast and a boiled egg.

He does like my cooking and is always very appreciative and says thank you though.

I have a word document with a list of meals with a few easy to prepare ones.

Tonight I am making chicken piaff which is quite easy.

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.

Everything connected to putting a meal on the table never bothered me. I like cooking. With 5 children it was always a case of eat what's put in front of you. The only exception was when liver was on the menu. It's an acquired taste so 3 of us enjoyed liver while the other 4 had something else.

Fortunately I love cooking as did my mother and she was an excellent cook right up to her nineties when dementia took hold.
I am getting more like her in that the first thing I plan in the morning is what we are going to eat that night.
I also batch cook so I always have something in the freezer when I am feeling lazy.

Not me, I don’t stress about it at all. I keep the fridge, freezer and cupboards stocked up, I bulk cook, and if on a particular day I fancy something different, I go shopping. I don’t let fridge food go past the sell by date, if we’re not going to finish something I either eat it or freeze it, but I never menu plan. If I’m being honest I’ve never actually menu planned in my life.

Calendargirl

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

Not in my day it didn’t.

Not in our house either. The furthest I went was cooking 2-3 vegetables instead of just one if I knew one child for example, didn’t like parsnips.

I wonder if netmums read the GN fussy eaters thread?

I agree its a bit of a pain but I dont stress about it.

I have found however that since I retired ( 2017) I take a moment to consider what we are going to have for our evening meal, yet can't remember doing so when I worked full-time; 8-6pm 5 days a week, and did the housework and shopping ( food and any other) at the weekend, no online deliveries back then!

I think I must have planned the weeks evening meals and then shopped accordingly, getting fresh bread and milk when needed from the local Spar shop ( only one open after 6pm) on my way home.

When we were working whoever arrived home first started cooking the meal, and the later arrival washed up!

Many children don't realise they're born these days with so many food choices available, I make home deliveries for one of the big four supermarkets, if an alternative has been sent, sometimes a parent will ask a child 'you won't eat that, will you', mostly it's a no, rarely a yes, I feel like shaking my head in despair, when I was growing up it was always 'you'll have what you're given', usually cheap tins of mince, spaghetti, etc; and powdered mash (with undissolved lumps in it, yuk).......

Maybe it goes by opposites. My mother was an excellent cook and although she sometimes got tired of thinking if meals, we always ate very well. She once said “It has to be done, so I may as well enjoy it.”

I was the opposite. I loathed cooking and can’t remember it ever being more than a necessary chore. I did meals on a fortnightly rota - I just had to look at my list. They were quite edible but I never enjoyed it.

Sago

I am glad to hear there are parents putting so much thought in to their children’s diets and not just banging “beige” food from the freezer to the oven.

I loved planning and preparing food for the family even with three children and both of us working.

My mother was a miserable and resentful cook, mealtimes were a battleground, I created something far more positive for our children.

I didn’t mind cooking for the family when they were younger, I spent a lot of time making pies with home made pastry and filling as well as stews and casseroles, I did it all from scratch. Now I cheat and simply don’t have the stamina for cooking big meals for the family though I do push the boat out on occasions like birthdays or Christmas.

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 am glad to hear there are parents putting so much thought in to their children’s diets and not just banging “beige” food from the freezer to the oven.

I loved planning and preparing food for the family even with three children and both of us working.

My mother was a miserable and resentful cook, mealtimes were a battleground, I created something far more positive for our children.

Yes

I should have mentioned, or put in quotes the fact that my first paragraph came from Netmums.

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.

Fallingstar

Oh I would love to have staff who could take over the weekly shop and making of meals. I sometimes like cooking but it can get tedious and time consuming.

Yes!!!!

Oh I would love to have staff who could take over the weekly shop and making of meals. I sometimes like cooking but it can get tedious and time consuming.