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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hate this obsession with Sunday Lunch.

355 replies

fckUsundaylunch · 01/05/2016 11:39

Yes I get that years ago everybody worked long hours and Sunday was the only time people could gather together to eat.
But times have changed.

If I get up on a Sunday and it's a really nice day, rather than spend all morning cooking, we will go out for the day.
We'll have the Sunday lunch on another day during the week..
I don't want my whole day to revolve around a meal.

My DM is always horrified ^But You have to have Sunday Lunch!''
'How can you not have Sunday Lunch?
Me Why?
DM ''Because it's Sunday!''
I think she would have a hear attack if I told her that sometimes we live really dangerously and go a whole month without seeing a roast potato Grin

Before the food police have a go, I cook really healthy meals, and we sit down to eat as a family on a regular basis,
just not always on a Sunday.

Anybody else have older parents who think this way?

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 01/05/2016 12:13

We have a Sunday roast every 3 or 4 weeks and different things other weeks e.g. Lasagne, takeaway, eat out, etc. Tonight we are having chicken and haggis wrapped in pastry with potatoes and veg. I don't remember my mum doing Sunday roasts much either.

HostaFireandIce · 01/05/2016 12:14

I grew up with a vegetarian mother who hated cooking. I didn't even know Sunday lunch was a thing until I met my husband.

dementedpixie · 01/05/2016 12:17

When we do have it it isn't at lunchtime but at dinner time (6pm ish)

Samcro · 01/05/2016 12:20

i love sunday lunch
but remember my very nice mil being shocked when we went out once that i didn't want one....i am out I want something that I don't cook at home

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 01/05/2016 12:20

Yes my parents were, and my Dad still is, like this.

Except we called it dinner, because we were a breakfast-dinner-tea family on Sundays. Hot meal = dinner; tea was usually sandwiches or crumpets or sardines-on-toast sort of thing.

When I moved out, I stopped having Sunday dinner at lunchtime, unless I went back to my parents' house. But when I got together with DH, we would have Sunday dinner in the evening on a Sunday instead, as we were often out at lunchtime, and tended to have our main meal in the evening anyway (again, unless we went to my parents' house).

We still do sometimes have a roast on Sunday, but nearly always in the evening now.

JasperDamerel · 01/05/2016 12:21

I can't have it at lunchtime, because church is 11-12, followed by tea and biscuits, which makes actual lunch tricky. I didn't go today, though.

CloneMeNow · 01/05/2016 12:23

We have a big Sunday brunch (sausages, fried potatoes, scrambled egg, baked beans, mushrooms etc. ) at about 12, which DH cooks. Then we have 'high tea' (bread, cheese, ham, salady stuff, soup etc.) around 5. I love Sundays, easiest cooking meal of the week. We do have roasts on other days, but not every week.

limitedperiodonly · 01/05/2016 12:23

We'd always have Sunday lunch in a favourite restaurant at the decadent hour of 3pm. My mum thought that was very glamorous Wink

Sadly, it's now closed down and my other favourite restaurant is closed on Sundays, so we always have a nice Sunday dinner at about 8pm. I'm sitting in the garden with a glass of prosecco and the papers while DH does his speciality of rancher's eggs.

Justmeagain78 · 01/05/2016 12:24

Totally with you op!!! My dh insists on family gatherings and roast dinners on a Sunday!! I hate both!! Would so much prefer sitting with a pizza on my lap not having to see anyone!!

IDismyname · 01/05/2016 12:26

I'll normally do some kind of 'special' meal on a Sunday evening - but around 6-7pm. Its the one meal that we all seem to be present at, so a good chance to talk (or argue!)

Winterbiscuit · 01/05/2016 12:27

I love Sunday lunch Smile

Balletgirlmum · 01/05/2016 12:27

Roast dinner is one of my favourite meals & it's also the one meal that ds eats well at though he has quorn sausage instead of meat.

We rarely eat at lunchtime though I'm about to take dd to a ballet workshop & dh has taken ds to buy his first guitar.

Because dh & dd get back late in the week (ds gets hungry earlier & dd eats at school justvun case she gets stuck in traffic we don't eat together in the week.

Oldraver · 01/05/2016 12:27

I think it all comes form when people had nothing better to do on a Sunday, apart from Church if you are that way inclined, and when money and good food was short so Sunday was the feast of the week.

We've got more to do now...more leisure, more shopping (isn't Sunday the supermarket busiest day now ? and families more widespread. I know my Grandma would be shocked at no Sunday Lunch, but she died before Sunday shopping and working became the norm

NickiFury · 01/05/2016 12:28

I love Sunday lunch, love it. But my kids won't eat one and it's not worth cooking just for one Sad

Lamb and mint sauce preferably.

Oliversmumsarmy · 01/05/2016 12:28

I can prepare a Sunday Lunch within 12 minutes. The rest is cooking time.
Turn oven on.
Peel potatoes, rinse and then they go straight into dish oil poured over and slammed into oven.
Roast goes straight into dish with water and then that goes into oven
Rinse Broccoli and cauliflower, chop up and then straight into large pan with water.
Peel carrots, chop and they go straight into pan with other veg.

We don't have gravy so we have a jar of italian tomato sauce into a separate pan.

does help that I am the worlds fastest veg peeler or the fact I have super sharp knives.

Don't have Sunday Lunch often as usually we are out. I do like roast potatoes. Should add we are a combination of meat eaters, vegetarian and vegans.

StillRabbit · 01/05/2016 12:29

I LOVE a roast dinner but we don't generally have it on a Sunday.

Weekends for us are usually about getting out and doing things. I wasnt feeling too grand this morning so having a relax after church while DH has made bread for lunch. We will probably go out for a walk this afternoon so dinner will (thinking about the fridge) probably be leek and bacon pasta bake.

I tend to buy small prepared individual roasting joints that only take an hour or so to cook and do a roast dinner on a weekday evening. I know the meat is more expensive that way but it is nice to have a relatively quick option.

If I crack on with dinner when I get home from work then it is ready for about 6.30 as I do insist on us all eating together on a weekday evening.

Buckinbronco · 01/05/2016 12:31

Oliversmummy you have tomato sauce on your roast instead of gravy?

Lovepancakes · 01/05/2016 12:31

Yabu Grin. We all really love Sunday lunch and the DC think it's very exciting have roast potatoes , gravy etc. It doesn't take much preparation time and we vary between lamb, pork, beef etc.

We also often have less meat during the week so makes the weekend feel a bit more special

Lovepancakes · 01/05/2016 12:33

Also if we've had a roast I'll slice and freeze the leftovers in the gravy so we in fact only cook every other week eg today it's leftover lamb from alex of lamb a month or so ago

NeedACleverNN · 01/05/2016 12:33

Mmmmmm Sunday dinner

The best meal of the week. Smile

We have roast beef this week but we alternate between beef, chicken and sausage and onions.

Delicious!

NickiFury · 01/05/2016 12:34

My friend used to have grated cheese on her roast, even when she came round for Christmas dinner. We were all Shock WTF?!

allnewredfairy · 01/05/2016 12:34

I've sort of come full circle on the Sunday roast. First marriage thirty something years ago husband number one and I rejected our parents ideas about the religious sunday roast routine and would treat ourselves to a fray bentos pie with processed peas. With husband number 2 the sunday dinner has been revived and we really enjoy lazily cooking a joint of meat, quaffing some wine and reading through the sunday papers.

StillRabbit · 01/05/2016 12:35

Oliversmumsarmy that sounds well organised! I'm not quite that quick as I par boil the photatoes and have to make Yorkshire puddings too (not just with beef) but, as you point out, it really isn't difficult to turn out a roast dinner.

In this house DH does the clear up so I get to put my feet up afterwards as well 😎

nennyrainbow · 01/05/2016 12:35

I didnt think anyone still did Sunday lunch apart from maybe a few oldies and traditional settings such as pubs / hospitals / care homes etc. So I'm quite surprised to read on here at how many people do.
As you can guess, we don't, and have never done. My parents never did either although I believe my grandparents did, hence my belief that it was an old people's thing. I'd rather not spend my Sunday daytime cooking and then have a big heavy meal in the middle of the day. I think your DM is rather old fashioned.

Drywhitethanks · 01/05/2016 12:36

I love a roast and the idea of Sunday lunch. Unfortunately we all do stuff on Sundays so finding time to cook and a time when everyone is able to sit around at the table together in the middle of the day is impossible. We do sit together at dinner time during the week if we can. Times have changed a bit.
Don't beat yourself up about it. There are lots of things we do differently to our parents.