to hate this obsession with Sunday Lunch.

[fckUsundaylunch]

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

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?

For my parents though Sunday dinner was sacrosanct. My mum would be in the kitchen for 10am through to 3pm (and yes, everything was overcooked to fuck) whilst my dad pottered about, snoozed on the sofa and watched sport.

Us kids would do the washing up, which I bloody hated - Sunday dinner washing up is the worst washing up in the world, particularly when you have a mother who believes that 'black and crispy bits' is a food group. Dad would have a snooze and read the papers. (Although i hated it, I did agree that mum shouldn't have to do it after cooking for us, of course - it was just a horrible job)

So basically your poor mum spent most of Sunday slaving away in the kitchen.

I think that's why some of us have an aversion to it.
The reality doesn't didn't quite live up to the adverts on the telly.

My mum cooks a huge roast every Sunday and finds it difficult to understand why we don't.

We always eat together on a Sunday (unless we're out for the whole day at a theme park/zoo on a BIG DAY OUT)...but we'll have lasagne, or spag bol, or fajita's or cawl...just a standard meal. I like a roast dinner but i'm not bothered about having to have one every Sunday. The only difference is that we always have dessert on a Sunday when the rest of the week is usually yoghurt and fruit for afters.

I also sometimes do a 'mini' roast dinner on random week nights which my mum can't understand at all either. Apparently you only eat gravy on a Sunday!

In this household, because Saturday morning has to be earmarked for the weekly shop, Sunday is the only day available for an all-day outing. Any roasts etc will have to happen in the evening: no way I am wasting a potential day out on those (I'm only in today because I a) have a cold b) have promised dd think over her application options for next year b) intend to recoup myself on Bank Holiday Monday.

These days when most of us work in long-hours sedentary jobs, I don't think sitting around the table for hours has to be the first priority at a time of day when you could be out getting some fresh air.

I actually like roasts because compared to the other cooking I do they are relatively low effort, just bung something in the oven and go off and go on MN. And I like the flavour. But if I can't take them with me out into the woods, they are going to have to wait.

MIL is like this OP, and my mother was too.

I have always have lunch on a Sunday, just as I do every other day. It's not always a big roast dinner because I don't think it has to be. Today I have no plan yet as myself and teens have had a semi nocturnal couple of days and one of 'em is still asleep now

Growing up we had roast chicken every Sunday. According to my father it wasn't Sunday without roast chicken. I do love a roast though and will eat roast beef/lamb/pork/chicken at every opportunity, regardless of the day

I grew up vegetarian and my mother was a terrible cook. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times when she made roast potatoes. And then they were all hard and sort of swimmy with vegetable oil. We didn't have any family nearby.

As a result I enjoyed having roast lunches when the children were younger and my father-in-law came round. They happen less often now, though as it happens, people are round for the bank holiday and there'll be a roast dinner tonight.

Yep, same here. Although it's just referred to as a roast that's the expected norm to be eaten on a Sunday. My mum is mortified that I don't do it. But I find the thought of having the same type of meal every Sunday, depressing! It just seems too routines and boring.

I also can't abide by doing meals at ridged times. We eat loosely around breakfast, lunch and dinner (not tea or supper either-simply dinner). I just can't dea with a precise time!

Are other countries as obsessive about this Roast Dinner On A Sunday Tradition?

I wonder what it's like in an American household on a Sunday?

No one likes Yorkshires and 3 out of 4 don't like gravy, don't forget apart from dhs beef we all eat vegan type roast. Dh makes his gravy from bisto in a jug.

Believe me I am the worst cook in the world but I can peel and cut veg olympic gold medal speed.

I also don't understand what it is about a roast dinner that keeps people in the kitchen for hours.

Piece of lamb/beef/pork in the oven and it does itself. Veg prep- all stacked ready in our steamer and roasties on the tray ready to go in. So about 25 minutes work at 10am, then that's it. 12pm go and stick the roasties in. 12.30pm, nip out and switch the steamer on. 1pm, go and pull the meat out, turn the steamer off and spend 10 mins making the gravy and sit down at 1.15.

Actual cooking and prep time is about 40 minutes in my world.

We probably have a 'Sunday Lunch' every 6 weeks or so. Sometimes it's on a Sunday, or Saturday or another day of the week if we are off work for some reason. It's never eaten at lunchtime, anytime between 4pm and 8pm.

Even if we go out for a Sunday roast, we choose places that continue serving into the evenings. We don't like eating a big meal at lunchtime, it wastes the whole day.

But yes I feel people do judge others about when they eat their roast lunch/dinner.

It's not a thing in Scotland- I never had a Sunday dinner ever. Still don't. Just a normal meal.

Having said that I am quite partial, and as we speak OH is cooking a big joint of roast beef- but that happens only 2 or three times a year.

Lots of restaurants in Italy outside tourist spots are closed on Sundays

I adore a Sunday roast, but like you OP, I can very rarely be arsed to spend my Sunday cooking! We will have a roast some other day in the week. Although I do sometimes cook Sunday dinner on a Sunday, but only if we've invited my parents over.
My grandma is horrified by my non-traditional ways. Same way she was horrified when I didn't serve lamb at Easter....think she's a bit gutted that she accepted my invitation instead of my sister's She has all her weird little quirks like that though (we call them "nan-isms"). She came to my house one day last summer, looked out of my kitchen window and said with a look of horror "Dear god Eggy! Your smalls are on full display on the line!".....urrrrm yes Nan. Where else do you suggest I dry my pants?!
I think Sunday dinner and not putting your pants on the line where the neighbour's might see are definitely an old person thing

I do a full roast - usually beef - on a Sunday every week for just me and DH. I don't get how it takes hours though...most of the time is spent sitting on my arse watching shit TV doing whatever I would normally be doing, waiting for a timer to beep and then there's 30 seconds of activity, before going back to whatever for a bit.

It takes about 10 minutes to prep the veg (roast potatoes, carrots, one "green" vegetable - usually cabbage or broccoli including cleaning the surface because of cat footprints, and wrapping the peelings up for the food recycling box) while the oven is heating up. The meat goes in, and gets 10 minutes while the spuds are par-boiling. The spuds go in around the meat. It all gets ignored for an hour - in 20 minute bursts, at which point you baste the spuds - and then the meat gets taken out and rested while the veg is cooked. Then it's all systems go and DH carves the meat while I make proper gravy the way my gran taught me 30 years ago and dish the rest of the food up. I don't make yorkies (because I am SHIT at it) but that's where Aunty Bessie comes in! 4 minutes in the hot oven while the rest is being dished up. I can get a roast for 4 people on the table without breaking a sweat in 90 minutes (any more than that and I need to think about it a bit, but it's not difficult). I do not get how people spend hours in the kitchen!

I think Sunday dinner and not putting your pants on the line where the neighbour's might see are definitely an old person thing

Nope, i'm with your nan on the knickers on the line! My undies (and dp's and the dc's) are dried on an indoor clothes airer in a very civilised manner

I would cringe at the thought of my lacy pants flapping away on the line for neighbours to see...and i'm 29 so definitely not just an old person thing lol.

There is only me and DP but we always have a roast on a sunday unless its scorching weather and we have a bbq.

I dont find it any more time consuming than any other meal to cook really eiher. We make loads of homemade yorkshires once a month and then freeze the ones we dont eat for the next few weeks roast dinners. Home made ones straight from freezer to oven work really well. Like previous poster does I use a steamer and often the slow cooker for the meat too, so not much washing up to do and as we go out somewhere most weeks, we eat around 7pm. Couldnt eat a huge roast dinner at lunchtime or mid afternoon.

Not really a thing here (Scotland). We usually have something light at lunchtime like soup. I like roasts but don't have them allocated to a particular day/meal.

the people at work keep going on about their roast dinners and how they could eat it every day. it turns my stomach. how vile.

As for knickers on the washing line, I can honestly say I have never given it a moments thought about what the neighbours may or may not think, and they could be hanging up gimp suits on their line for all I know as I never look!

I do have a slightly embarassing memory of my dog once running around the garden, and flying through into next doors garden too with one of my bras (not exactly small either) and the elderly neighbour handing it back to me with a leery grin..

"the people at work keep going on about their roast dinners and how they could eat it every day. it turns my stomach. how vile."

vile??? thats a bit of a strong word... they are hardly cannibals surely??

So basically your poor mum spent most of Sunday slaving away in the kitchen.

A roast chicken is one of the simplest things you can cook. If you'd prefer to do something else, then do it. But there is no slaving about it or liberation through not.

SoThatHappened- Why vile?

It's vile when they bring their leftovers in and cook it in the microwave without the kitchen door shut and eat it next to me.

Meat veg and potatoes. Why the fuss.

Not a thing in our family these days. It was when I was growing up and my grandparents always had roast at Sunday lunch time. My parents moved to Sunday roast in the evening when I was in my teens then when we moved away often just ate whatever they fancied. We're usually out doing sporting stuff on Sundays and have our main meal on an evening which is rarely a roast.
If I invite the inlaws over on a Sunday for a meal I invite them on an evening so we can do stuff during the day.

I don't really like eating a big meal at lunchtime, we sometimes have a roast Sunday evening, but not always. We sometimes have roast chicken on a Friday or Saturday instead. My parents were never very rigid about this sort of thing either.