I hate making dinner

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Does anyone else hate it? Prior to having kids I enjoyed it but now it feels like daily drudgery. I think it's because everyone has specific dietary requirements so no meal is exactly how I'd like to serve it – so lots of deconstructed dinners. Sauces separate; veg all cut up separately with no dressing; hubby doesn't like dairy much; I love cheese; plain food for kids; even though they are almost teens. In fact the kids would be happy with fish fingers, pizza, bolognese and hot dogs on rotation forever… Urgh. It's almost time again!

22 years cooking with kids as well. Now I have Gousto have to say it’s so helpful (and delicious) and meal for 2 will stretch for 3 or 4 with a bit of added ingredients. I’m not advertising for it! If I’m on my own at home for dinner I’m super happy with a bit of toast!

Yep, tedious

Does my head in! Sick of planning, preparing cooking etc! It's just a never ending cycle. The worst at the moment is lunchtimes! The children are on their school holidays now and will usually get fed in term time at school as do I but now we're all at home and I'm fed up of thinking of what to have!

For me it's the 'what's for tea?' Question that is like a knife to my soul. I try to stop it by having a menu on a chalk board on the cupboard that I change every week. I still get asked 😫. I have meals mostly on rotation though so it's not hard and I batch cook but I am driven insane by getting a text at work asking what is for tea when it is fucking written down

Yep, absolutely hate it. 25 years of cooking for a family and I’m done with it (and with shopping for food).

Hate cooking too! But I think you need to get your DH to do more of it - trade it off against some other household task if you need to. And have some 'picnic' meals which don't involve cooking at all.

Luckily my DH largely fends for himself or we occasionally cook a meal each and our 4yo doesn't have high standards. We had lunch out today so dinner for DS tonight will be some microwave rice, leftover cold salmon and pre-cut carrot sticks, DH will sort himself out and I will have cheese and houmous from the fridge with nice bread. Minimal cooking (microwaving) involved.

The alternative in our house was a cheese sandwich. Everybody ate the meals. The biggest stick for your own back is called pandering. Just don’t .

Requirements or preferences?

Hate it with a passion - have teens and everyone is so fussy I can’t be bothered anymore.

Omg I didn't realise anyone else did this! I'm psyching myself up for four variations on a theme of Mousaka. DD will have the only lamb ragu; DH the normal version (lamb, aubergines and soufflé/sauce topping); I'll have it lentil based but with the aubergines and soufflé/sauce topping; DD the same but no aubergine. Luckily they will all eat a green salad and baked potato with it.

Urgh it's tedious isn't it.

Me and ds have both had porridge for tea because I just couldn't face another meal time faff.

The thinking. The shopping. The cooking. The pots. It's an every churning chore. Single mum here so it's all on me. Some nights we have something super easy like beans or eggs on toast. Or porridge like tonight. 🤣

Does anyone have the thing with teens where their body clocks mean they don't want to eat at a normal mealtime (say. 7/7:30?). Or when they're out and don't bother to let you know if they're home for dinner or not?

Especially my eldest asd ds. It's like a permanent guessing game.

Me and DP have a the same meals and every mon-fri - the DCs are all fussy buggers, one ASD and only eats about 3 different “dinner foods”. Yes it’s boring and we sometimes switch out one meal for another when we’re sick of it eg spag bol for chilli. It also makes doing the weekly shop easy as I buy the same things every week.
Saturdays we don’t plan anything, cook whatever we fancy, maybe something out the freezer. Maybe takeaway.
Sunday will usually be a hearty meal like roast, cottage pie, bangers and mash etc. in summer it might be burgers/hot dogs on the bbq etc.

sometimes kids ask for “lunch for dinner” so if they’ve had a hot school lunch then I don’t mind making this for them eg omelette, toast, sandwich and just make sure I serve up loads of fruit or veg too.

One of the worst things about being a mum is having to decide on and make meals. Every. Single. Day.

You are not alone.

Over the past few years I have really simplified our eating. We only have a "proper" meal once or twice a week. Salad, toast, jacket potato etc is fine. It's only DH and me, he isn't bothered and will cook some of the time.

I am a couple of decades beyond thinking a daily hot meal is an essential.

I also don’t understand the need for a ‘hot meal’ every day.
I can understand that historically, a cooked evening meal was the main meal of the day and was much needed after a long day down the mines, on the farm, in factories/mills etc…
We don’t need filling up the way people in the past did.

I hate it.

eldest is 17. So sick of it after all these years.

will they thank us?

I don't mind making it, it's the deciding what to have I really hate.

Agree about the hot meal thing too, there was a thread recently with lots of us saying we don't cook proper meals when there's only ourselves to cook for. DH works away a fair bit and I pretty much survive on sandwiches, beans on toast or similar and frozen pizza if I'm really hungry. It was noted on that thread that most of us eat mainly vegetarian stuff too which I thought was interesting. I'm 2.5 stone overweight and wonder whether perhaps I wouldn't be if I ate like that all the time instead of the big, meat-containing meals DH likes

My mum has been struggling to get her diabetes under control and one issue her doctor has flagged is her disordered eating. Things like a frozen pizza or beans on toast for dinner aren’t good. You need to get your veg in there!

Something like a chicken and salad wrap is good, a cheese toastie, not so much.

Does anyone have the thing with teens where their body clocks mean they don't want to eat at a normal mealtime (say. 7/7:30?)

Yep, I might make dinner on a Sunday for 7pm and they'll say that's too early as they only had lunch at 4pm. Well when you don't get up until 1pm... 🙄

Early in my career I lodged with a a family with small children. Both parents worked full-time, and the mum did all the cooking but she had a clever way of organising it. Every night she would cook a one-pot meal such as cauliflower cheese, pasta bake etc and put it in the fridge for tomorrow.
Every morning before work she would put in the meal that she had prepared last night, set the timer on the oven to come on so that when they arrived home from work there was a hot meal ready to eat! I've never heard of anyone else doing this but it seemed to work for them.
She was still cooking every night tho.

I love it but then my DD eats anything and everything, she’s easy to feed 😂. I do wish I was making it for more people than just me and my DD though as sometimes I would like to share a meal with another adult.

Yep, I might make dinner on a Sunday for 7pm and they'll say that's too early as they only had lunch at 4pm

Once you have older teens, get them cooking for themselves. In my house there was DS who was a fan of beige food, DD who was mostly veggie, and me who likes meat and hates beige food. Now everyone eats what they like when they like. Very occasionally there’s a clash in cooking times, but then one of us just waits a while, it doesn’t happen often. The only meal I cook for all of us now is Christmas dinner!

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t hate it

A meal rotation is a good idea, as it having some no cook days each week (cook double on other nights to create freezer stashes, or meals like omelettes or baked potatoes).

It does sound like you are running too much of a hotel kitchen though OP. Cut that right down.