Is there a law that means I am the only who can decide what we have for dinner?

[carocaro]

Is there? Where is it? In the Magna Carter, Domesday Book? Can someone show me that it is the law of the land that only Mum's can decide on what to have for tea and all thy betrothed and thy off-spring stand there gormlessly without thought or opinion.

oh lordy, yes, we have this law in our house. Every week I ask "what shall we eat this week?" and I get a shrug or a "dunno".

Then, come Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, at least one child will turn up their nose at whatever I have planned.

Its infuriating. There also seems to have slipped into our family lexicon "Im not hungry for XXXXXXXX" - which means they dont fancy it. WHere on earth has that come from?

Another wife/mum/woman who is the only one seemingly capable of thinking what to have to eat, shopping for it and then cooking it. I often moan about it but it gets me nowhere. I've just read some of this thread out to dh. His answer? "God, that lot are in a mood aren't they". Shall I give you my address so that you can come and lynch him or is there a central point at which I could drop him off?

Oh yes.

Although he cooks loads, I'm not sure why he needs me to tell him what to cook first. And then which vegetables. Instead of just looking and cooking whatever will go off first.

Aquos, Happy to offer ear clipping services!

Yes - same here. DH's first question upon returning home from work (before enquiring about our day ) is invariably, "What are we having for tea ? I'm starving". I make a few suggestions, he turns his nose up. You're clearly not that fucking starving then are you ??!

When I'm doing the food shop online, I'll always ask him if there's anything he particularly fancies. Any ideas for meals maybe ? No - whatever I want to get is just fine. Grrrrrr

My own mother was clearly as pissed off when I was a child. Our requests to know the evening's menu for were always met with "Shit with sugar on" or "Squirrel shit on toast". Nice !

I do meal planning with a general "anything you fancy this week ?" Then Ocado online and Fruit and veg box.

I do two choices for dinner ---- Take it or leave it

another pissed off mother here but I have ...drum roll...solved the problem. Friday night I sit down and plan the evening meals for the entire week ahead. Try to include people's favourites where I can, use up what we have, and keep it reasonably balanced. Put said menu on fridge door. People have until Saturday morning to make suggestions, alterations, and then I shop for said meals. Initially the question "What's for dinner?" was met with "whatever's written on the menu". Now, they don't even ask. anyone who is home before me and feels so inclined can start preparing the meal for that day,anyone who doesn't like the option can go without or have toast.
Result!

I get this allllllll the time!

What is annoying me at the moment is DSS claiming he 'doesn't like' whatever I have made when he doesn't fancy eating it. Eg, chicken. That he would happily eat every other day, but not today, he doesn't like it

So I let him had toast don't want him to starve!

(BTW he is 10!)

agree withMrs Baggins
2 choices - eat it or don't have anything

Agree with others. Do a loose meal plan for a week ahead.

I do all my shopping online for groceries so I look through fridge and freezer before I put in the order and roughly think through the meals we will be having in the next week. Then I get the ingredients in plus restock the staples. That way we dont waste much and we have a proper variety. The old standby recipes like spag bol are always there in an emergency and we can always get really good fish and chips as a treat once a fortnight if we have been out and need a quick meal but generally avoid the stress of the 'what shall we have moment?' without resorting to fast food or ordering in pizza.

Me to DH: what do you want for dinner?

Is always invariably met with the reply "dont know - what are you having"

And I will always invariably say "it doesnt really matter what Im having because (a) Im on Weightwatchers and (b) you never want what im having anyway!!

We do meal plan already - I say 'we' I do it. If I ask for suggestions all I get is 'I don't mind'

It makes me want to kill. Then he still asks every evening, even though he could just read it off the list.

often it is whatever precooked meal I can prize out of the freezer aas it is rather full at the moment. there seems to be too many frozen peas and rather a lot of salmon as tescos were selling off whole saalmon for 25% of the original price. and I haave 2 great lumps of pork that were less thaan half price at tescos. got to think of something interesting to do with them.

OMG NO!!!!! OH and I have six kids between us (3 each) and every he still says it even when we have all six. ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YANBU

I think I love you.

even....

Only read first page but have to say GeraldineAubergine your 'gizzards and jam' answer is hilarious!

If it's any help, OP, I have a really boring and practical way of organising meals. Ignore, of course, if you want, but it does help me :)

Sun : roast (whatever, mostly chicken but whatever you like/is on spesh in Tesco)

Mon : salad (hearty one like Caesar or Niçoise) using leftover meat from roast

Tues : homemade soup and bread (made using stock from bones from roast)

Wed : scrambled eggs n toast

Shit, I really have a way of killing threads, don't I?

I have a slightly different problem. I want to save money, and I am grossly overweight, so I want healthy, home cooked meals. OH also would quite like to lose a little weight, his choice, and would like tasty home cooked food.

I am no good at housewifery anyway, so thinks like lunch seem to ambush me everyday as I try to work out how to feed healthily a four and one half year old, an eighty year old (my dad lives with us) and me. Ds hates all food anyway, except (fill in what isn't in the house, and it will be different in half an hour).

My dad, bless him, I don't think feels like he contributes much to the house (he does loads!) so when the vexed question of dinner time comes up, and me and OH are trying to think of something low in calories, Dad always comes out with, 'I'll buy us all a takeaway'. So we end up having loads of takeaways, losing money as well as health and there are - no exaggeration - seven separate fast food outlets within around 150 yards, three of them absolutely excellent but not low calorie.

Meal plans have so far not been successful as I am not so good at planning but great at getting side tracked, having a crisis or finding out that whatever is defrosted 'isn't fit'.

OohIsThatAFlake - my general approach would be, if I could manage it...

Sunday - Roast
Monday - Cold meat and chips (home made chips)
Tuesday - Casserole (OH out straight after meal)
Wednesday - Sausages/burgers/grills
Thursday - Veggie (pasta or stir fry type thingy)
Friday - Fish n chips (there are two really, really good ones within spitting distance)
Saturday - whatever experimental thing I fancied or bacon butties

Now is a good time to go back to it, I guess.

Ideas for lunch floor me on a regular basis. Dad keeps going out for fish and chips and I don't think it is good for my son. As Dad is well past his three score and ten and is fitter than me, what he eats is his business.

I am guilty as charged as being expectant that the chef decides the meal.

I devised a week's menu a few months ago but DH only stuck to it for 2 days before he got fed up because it was "too rigid" and he didn't fancy what I'd decided on for any particular meal.

Add to that the fact that I have no health problems but he is lactose intolerant and allergic to basil, and I will eat jacket potatoes every day if need be, while he refuses to eat potatoes/bread/other carbs cooked in the same method two days in a row (besides sarnies every lunch)...I think i'm quite entitled to be stumped when asked "so what do you want for tea tonight then?"

I'll have a huge plate of macaroni cheese then thanks.

DH on the day that he is home will ring me at work to ask what we should have for tea. He is a chef

My answer is invariably "I don't care" - which I don't, I'm not cooking it. On the days I cook, there is no discussion, I just make something and they eat it. I think maybe we're just an exceptionally greedy family. I don't really meal plan, but I try and do a roast chicken at the weekend, as I love curry with leftover chicken the next day

Yes, mum must decide what to eat, but DD2 and DH must like it. The list of things DD2 doesn't like is very long, DH is easy not strong fish, roast pork, anything that needs dissection.
DD2 would eat pasta, mince, sausages, chicken, steak, sweetcorn, ham and ice-cream forever.
DD1 and I rebel every now and again,we throw sausages or bacon at the philistines and eat lamb chops or salmon

It's so dull though, especially in the school holidays with lunch as well. Why is it that a child that has a cheese sandwich for lunch 4 days a week and jam on fridays, has to have something new and exciting each day of the school holidays?

OMG, am totally with you on this one. Every day the same packed lunch, sandwich, yoghurt, fruit and one other (crisps, flapjack, biscuit). Every day. And today, 'we had sandwiches yesterday'. So what, you're not making bloody lunch!

Whereas I am quite tempted to see just how long it would take DD to tire of ham sandwiches for every single meal. Today she had tinned spaghetti for lunch at her friend's house - this means no cooked tea, right? Erm, no, tinned spaghetti is not a cooked meal, you can NOT have a ham sandwich for tea.

Sigh. Flippin' sandwiches. The cats love a ham sandwich as well, one of them drills holes in the back of my neck with his eyes unti lhe gets a scrap.

Haha!!

DH must by psychic (or stalking me online ) As, without much prompting - he did the whole weeks meal plan today without me! And the shopping list!