AIBU to give up cooking next Monday?

I feel your pain. My son would eat his food, all the leftovers, then still have 4-6 slices of toast before bed - we honestly wondered if he had a tapeworm at one point !
the bad news is that they are still like this until early 20’s at least, sorry!

I stopped when youngest was at uni. Before probably.
It was such a relief. They all just cook what they want when they want it.
I do often at the weekend make batches of dishes for all to help themselves to - but no expectations.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I swear to god the last thing I’ll hear on my deathbed will be ‘what’s for dinner?’

This is exactly what I did. I told DH that family meals were over and i would be shopping for my girl dinner ingredients. And would be eating when I was hungry, not waiting for him to get home or I might eat much later 🤷‍♀️

I batch cook meals for myself occasionally but it's mainly all the types of meals and food mentioned in this thread.

Of course your DH is going to think it's an extreme reaction because he's panicking about his own food, but you're not his mother, he should be responsible for feeding himself.

I do sometimes offer my DH some of my meals and once or twice a week we might cook a shared meal, or end up we preparing our individual food together which is nice.

When the dcs come home I might cook for us all but not out of duty, only if I want to, or they cook or we get takeaway.

I don't blame you, thinking of stuff is my bug.

Stocked look good, any recommendations?

I haven’t cooked since DH died just a little over two years ago. Threw out all pots and pans and associated paraphernalia. Oven now stores the cats food.
it’s bliss and frees up so much time. There are loads of options to cooking and being chained to the sodding oven like an under appreciated skivvy.
Bonus- I lost 70+ kg and my blood pressure and blood work have never been so good!

I can’t wait until I can just have “girl dinners” with pre cooked chicken, fancy breads and maybe some cheese and grapes.
Right now I’m in the middle of 12-year-old boy Hoover who thinks nothing of eating 1/2 a loaf of bread to himself and still asks for sandwiches, and an 8 year old boy who is competing with his brother.

I feel like this. I’ve started buying cook frozen meals and am trying stocked ( frozen blocks) . I am planning to get my husband and kids to eat these .

Ah yes, the “I don’t fancy that” remark. I was very good at breathing through it !
(Menopause combined with busy life. Now we are both retired we’re both much easier to be around)

Sounds great to me.
after 35 years of cooking, once my son left home I pretty much have reduced it to a few days a week.
Husband retired shortly after son left home and I put him on lunch duty. In recent years he’s taken on most of the thinking about it and shopping for it, as if it was down to me we’d have soup and bread or sardines on toast most days.

To be honest I was doing ok with it all but lockdown finished me - all that having to plan 60 odd portions of food each week for people with allergies and accommodating dislikes (I will eat anything that someone else has cooked for me, I suspect many of us are the same!).
My lovely husband didn’t really get it when he first retired but now he has had a few years of it he understands.
I do still hope I’ll get my cooking mojo back at some point.

I like cooking for guests but that’s largely because it’s food we don’t normally eat so it’s more of a feast.

as others have said, it’s the thinking about it that’s the worst part. I don’t mind shopping for it if I’m given a list. Less keen on cooking it unless it’s something I can do while
listening to a podcast. Actually tonight we had a stir fry. It’s the first time I’ve used the stove since May!

People who don’t cook- what do you eat? No judgement - I just want ideas 😂😂

if it was me I’d just live on coffee and M&S ready meals with a side of those pre prepped green veg that manage to be really delicious ( prob coz marinated in butter).

Have found the frozen Stocked cubes to be quite a good solution for teens who say “there’s no food in this house” or when you really CBA.

I haven’t cooked in years. No DC though.

I’m autistic and find the whole process throughly unpleasant to the point that it gives me a migraine and has even made me physically unwell in the past.

Give up the cooking; theres no exact universe rule saying you can and will never ever cook again in your life. You do you... and do what makes you happy

I was a single parent too, and also used to cooking. But my current partner and I take it in turns to cook/host.

Have you shared with how you feel? Perhaps he will take the cooking on, or at least share it

I’m the same and I used to mock my mum about it but wow after 20 years as a parent I am so over it.
Microwave meals, fish finger sandwiches, frozen jacket potatoes, cheese, bread and fruit and a steak a week for iron. Done.

Ah, I have some fruit along with a protein drink and then a microwave jacket potato, cheese, beans and veg ... all done in the microwave.

Bliss, utter blissful. Every meal at home.

I have found my people.

I love cooking, discovering new cuisines, long lazy meals...if it's the only thing I have to do. Planning, shopping, preparing and serving three meals a day for me and a fussy ten year old while also working full time, studying, supervising homework, taxi-ing them to clubs...no. Fuck off. If I can't make it in 20 mins max using a microwave and/or air fryer, I'm out.

The ten year old is getting better at helping prep and clear up but still. Counting the days til I can just live on whatever the fuck is to hand.

If I could afford to do this I 💯 would.

With a year off I reckon I could actually enjoy cooking again. The pandemic really killed it for me.

I know of someone who doesn't have a cooker in their kitchen. She says there's plenty you can make via the microwave and buy from the shops ready made/cooked. If not its catering job, take away or meal out. The older I've got the more sensible this seems

So why doesn't the rest of the household cook??

Why do you have to plan everything?

If they want a particular meal, they get to cook it.

Do a rota. Or do you and your husband already alternate who cooks each night?

Wtf. What an unappreciative knob!

I bake my own sourdough, try and keep everything as unprocessed as possible. I'm always planning in my head what I need to use up, what we haven't had recently, what we've had too many times, how much time I'll have when I finish work, can I prep some stuff before I have to take the kids to their swimming lesson? Etc etc.
The other day something was taking longer to cook than I'd anticipated so everyone was waiting and moaning. DH was like
Why so much faff? We'd all be happy to just eat beans on toast.
So at least I know my efforts to feed my family a healthy varied diet are also not appreciated.