Co-operative Housekeeping ?

Yes howto. I remember the relief of ditching communal living.

If there was some way of single parents sharing the load it would help.

If community kitchens worked you wouldn't have the problems at uni in halls.

I do eat a lot of convinence food and chuck in oven stuff. Dh does fancy stuff using all these herbs and the food processor and god knows what. Way out of my ability level!

Unfortunately due to this I waste too much on eating out, take aways and pre made sauces. Singapore sounds like my type of place.

Yes Princess - I've even gone as far as to cost out a month of dinners from M&S or similar, and it's not quite doable yet...

I used to live in Singapore, where eating out is very, very common - there are food stalls under virtually every building where you can get lunch/dinner cheaply. My (local) neighbours very rarely cooked, someone would just pop over to the local food court and bring home lunch/dinner or they'd go over themselves as a family.

It was very freeing to know that you could come in and not have to cook, just swing buy and grab what you fancied, and not pay the earth for it.

Similarly, elsewhere I used to go to lunch at a charity Indian restaurant where you just went and picked up a meal of whatever they were cooking that day and paid them a fair price.

Local cafes/kitchens/affordable foodcourts I think are a fantastic idea - they bring a community together and give true value - eating out is just too expensive in this country.

Personally I could not think of anything worse than a return to matrilineal family set ups. I can rely on my husband to cook, clean and do childcare. I definitely could not rely on my mother!

If there was a place you could give a months food money to and they cooked all meals for my family I would do it. Sort of like a canteen or forces mess so you never had to shop again.

Not saying that men shouldn't do housework, but considering the present state of things, I think that would work best if they lived alone or with other men.There is a tendency that it's always the woman's paid job that is considered less important when children are sick, etc.

Interesting. I dislike most other people, so would not be a good person to pioneer this, but I can see it working for people who are more social than I.

The thing closest to this I have seen happening was single mothers moving in with each other to share the housekeeping and childcare with each other.

What I think might work for people like myself is a return to matrilinieal family structures; i.e. women staying with their family or origin instead of moving in with a husband. Grandmother, mothers and children would then live in the same building and be able to share housekeeping.

Not specifically answering your question but it occurred to me:

The best bet would be a good cheap neighbourhood cafe. I've been to excellent community / church cafes in the States. But it will never happen in the UK (outside of the wartime of the last century) as we like our privacy.

A sad step back the reduction in meals on wheels for the elderly which was a success story for a long time in the UK.

Why on EARTH would I share cooking duties with my neighbour instead of my husband?

Have I wildly misunderstood the post?