AIBU to not want to decide what’s for sodding dinner?

my dh is a one for I dont like that which throws and annoys me so often i dont tell him

dont you meal plan before going shopping? Saves money as far less waste. Ours isn’t strict but I’ll have basics in anyway then buy chicken, mince etc plus the fresh vegetables etc for meals at the weekend, grabbing more fresh throughout the week as required, but the structure is there, so much easier

Have a shoebox and put in all the meal ideas you can think of - shepherds pie, Mac'n'cheese, baked potatoes beans n cheese, sausage/mash, fish/ chips, ham egg/chips, risotto, curry, salade nicoise, spag bol, chicken dinner (winner winner!). Ask the family for suggestions and include as many as you can. Then on a Sunday pick out seven for the week.

I got so fed up of meal planning and then being told they didn’t fancy that or don’t like it that I refused to do it.
Now if they want me to buy and cook the food, DH and DD1 have to come up with the meals they want to eat or I’ll just buy and cook something for me and DD2 if they want to be fussy! Seems to be working so far

Oh and my other top tip for when you really are out of ideas is to look at the lunch menu for a local school. They often have them online. Then just follow that. No thinking involved.

But truth is other family members ought to be alleviating some of the mental load. Sometimes I find it easier to crack on without them though.

We have been weekly planning for a long time. Plan Friday, if one of us is out we plan on Thurs. DH does weekly shop on Saturday first thing so it HAS to be done. It’s painful for the 15 mins we are trying to come up with what to eat but then we don’t have to think about it for a whole other week.

God save me from another spag bol! 😭

It's a never ending slog and I don't even have kids!
DH is going away for work this week and I'm going to eat chicken breast, packet brown rice and broccoli every single night! I don't care if that's boring - it's nutritious, doesn't require thought and doesn't create washing up.

I'd think fuck it all, make what I like, and they can make themselves soup/sandwich/toast!

My mum used to have set meals for each day of the week. Monday was shepherds pie, Tuesday was stew...you get the picture. Growing up I HATED it, the boredom and predictability, but I was part of the problem because I hated potatoes and, this being the 60's and us being poor, a large amount of every meal was potato.

Then I had to cook for a family and I found out why she did it. Meals for five kids when you've got no money and they all hate every single thing you make, it feels like. But now they're all grown up and gone - and I've gone back to meal planning! It makes shopping easier and cheaper, although now I only plan meals that I like, obviously. But I look back on those years of screaming hell where the only meal they'd all eat was pizza and they spent much of every mealtime trading food over the table ('I'll eat your peas if you have my sausages...') with horror. But they've all grown up healthy!

Yes this. I'd be tempted to just do toast anyway for a bit.

Or breakfast for dinner every night. I'm lucky though- none of mine complain and DH gets his own because he only eats salad at night.

Personally I don’t mind but I also meal plan according to what I want to eat and then ask DH and the DC if they wish to edit my plan.

We have a jar on the bench with meals on pieces of paper and just pull 6 out every Sunday before doing the weekly shop for exactly this reason, neither of us can be arsed deciding😂

Put the types of things you like into chat gpt along with a weekly budget and ask it to give you a 4 or 6 week meal plan and cycle through it, life changing!

Any complaints means they make dinner next day.

I refuse to accept "I don't mind" answers.

I've told them clearly ... If I'm asking you, it's because I need you to choose. So pick something, anything.

😆 yep me too. That said, DH will eat nearly anything, so it’s only been a chore since offspring decided to have dislikes!

Well there are various options, the most obvious being "what are you going to make for us?" to anyone, who asks you.
I sometimes do a country of the week or somewhere we have been on holiday. As our main meal is always lunch, supper is less of an issue and is often soup and salad, Abendbrot or cheese and fruit or some combination of those options.

I hate it too. If I make something new, I get complaints from DC. If I repeat too much, everyone complains. If I try to write a plan for the week I get complaints from DH - I should see what's on offer and spontaneously decide in the shop. Problem is, I'm a really bad cook so I need a recipe to follow, I can't make stuff up as I don't really know what goes with what. I hate it.

Write down what you have for dinner each evening. Scroll back and choose what you fancy if you don’t want to try something new. Reengage with the gormless when they start asking if they can have a particular meal again. You are free.

I hate it too. Noone else cares, until I make something they don't like. The teen can be a little fussy.

I tend to do it once a month. See what's in the freezer already cooked to fill in the gaps we're working late then full in the gaps dh wfh

Still such a chore though but least it's not weekly

Doesn't help I also have to decide on dinners at work for the kids I nanny for so I feel like I'm constantly deciding what's for dinner