To hate cooking and the relentlessness of it all

[nogella]

Bloody cooking meals. thinking of new meal ideas. Meal plans, fucking meal plans. The mess. DC not liking what's on offer and then not eating it. The mess. The clean up. EVERY SINGLE DAY

I feel the same, loved cooking pre children but now it’s just a massive repetitive chore

Me too! Although I refuse to be the one doing all the meal planning and cooking.

Yesssss

I hear you.
I always swore that once the kids left home, I'd never cook another meal again.
The youngest left home 11 years ago and I've not cooked a meal since.
If it doesn't go in the microwave then it's not happening.

Yep it’s that part of parenting you never quite realised until you are in it- that you need to think up, buy, make and clean up minimum 21 meals a week!

Yep. Used to love it but fuck the milk monotony of it. Lockdown really finished it off for me.

Totally OP. Also trying to cater to what they will/won't eat. I have one vegetarian, one who refuses to eat cheese or eggs, and one who is just ridiculously picky and only eats about 3 meals.

It's all the more frustrating because I eat literally anything and everything. And like a PP I used to really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes.

I absolutely adore cooking but my one fussy eater takes the joy out of it. When at her dad’s she just snacks so have to make sure that she eats when she’s at my house. Don’t know where she gets her fussiness from, every other member of the family eats everything

I do every bit of cleaning, tidying and laundry. I do all of this without help from DH because he does everything to do with food. The planning, shopping, cooking, dealing with tantrums, catering for guests and that for me is worth every other bit that I do.

I would clean the bathroom 20 times rather than meal plan for a whole week. Anything to do with food is way more tedious than another domestic chore.

I only like doing it when my middle child is home from university, because he actually appreciates the meals.

Otherwise it’s a relentless bloody grind where nobody likes the same foods

Yes! School holidays are especially bad for this. I think I am asked to prepare food approximately every 17 seconds. I get nothing else done beyond making food and clearing up...

I end up relying on convenience foods and fuck it. It's depressing though.

my enjoyment of cooking came back a bit once no kids in the house. But even though only me and DH I still do 80% of the thinking about food, shopping, working out leftovers…

I have the odd week off when I just passive aggressively down tools. Dh’s what shall we have for tea? (Which is really what have you planned for tea) is met with an I don’t mind. The problem is I really don’t have to mind….he’s a good but rarely adventurous cook.

I love cooking and all things food, but even so the relentless thinking and planning it all takes the joy out of it.

Happy to spend time on my days off making lovely food but I'm so over the rushed weekdays and trying to produce something tasty and nutritious in that small gap between finishing work and ferrying DS to yet another club 🙄
I'm lucky in that DS eats anything, I think a fussy eater would tip me over the edge!

I think it's this that has put me off cooking for life!

We do really easy dinners a few times a week - scrambled eggs, beans on toast, cheesy crumpets etc which definitely helps with this

Then relying on batch cooking too - if I’m making curries / lasagne etc I’ll make twice as much and then it’s dinner for another day or two

It’s the absolute bane of my fucking life and I detest it.

YADNBU!! Hate it. So annoying.

Hello Fresh helped a bit, but it's expensive and I only did it for DH and I not the kids.

YANBU. I hate cooking. If I could afford to buy in help, a cook would be top of the list.

I adore ironing and mopping though. Don’t ask me why, it makes no sense. Also have a soft spot for window and mirror cleaning. I think I just need to find someone who hates those things but is happy to take over the kitchen.

Yeah, I sort of like cooking, but I get sick of doing it all the bloody time, and I get really sick of trying to think up a range of meals that everyone will eat, are reasonably healthy and nutritious, not too expensive, and don't three hours and eleven billion pots and pans to cook!!!

Does anyone who isn't the family cook actually realise how much hard work that is???

I am the cook and shopper and the person with all the imagination and skills to create meals out of odds and ends. I do understand what you mean about the monotony. But I opted out of the meal plan, think of things they will all eat, cook every day method of cooking for a family some years ago, and I’m very much the happier for it.

instead of thinking that I need to cook specific meals on specific days or provide a dinner every day or meal plan for a week, I just think of feeding them all as being a constantly continuing buffet meal. Like when you go to an all you can eat place and there are constant dishes of all kinds and they are refreshed and refilled when needed, and there is someone in the back just cooking stuff. It doesn’t really matter what stuff they are cooking because it all just goes out and it doesn’t really matter who eats what and when. By doing it like this I cook when I want to, I usually cook for a good few hours here and there maybe once or twice a week, some people would call it batch cooking I suppose but it’s not really. Because at each meal there are always other options ready from yesterdays or tomorrows and everyone has free access to them and can eat whatever which takes all the stress away, on the understanding that when they are gone they are gone. But there are always home made and helthy choices and no one is restricted to meals we will all eat.

at the moment these are currently available in the fridge to be eaten hot or cold for lunch or dinner, all made by me days ago - 1 fruit crumble (3/5 will eat) a bread and butter pudding (4/5 will eat) ready cooked sausage rolls (3/5 will eat) small beef pasties (2/5 will eat) a large cottage pie (4/5) a broccoli and sesame salad (2/5) roasted carrot and coriander soup (2/5) peeled hard boiled eggs (3/5) a beef chilli (2/5) already done jacket potatoes (5/5) roasted squash wedges (3/5) a black Cherry compote (4/5) some cooked breaded chicken pieces (5/5) along with all the usual cheese, yoghurts, fruit, crackers, bread cereal etc. I don’t care who eats what or if one person spends the whole week eating the chilli or if the teenagers eat crumble for breakfast. Once one dish is gone it gets replaced by another.

Anyone 12 or over is perfectly capable of making their own breakfast or lunch. I’m surprised so many posters seem to be waiting on teens hand and foot. At 16 they should join the dinner preparation rota.

I get really fed up with it too, but found that I got way less fed up when I decided to serve boring, easy meals on repeat.
The kids are much happier with spag bol, tacos, pizza etc every single week than they were with a varied and interesting menu!

Gousto has saved my sanity!

Yes I hear you, it’s such drudgery! I hate it! I do what I can to simplify and repeat but it’s just hard hard work, especially at the end of a working day.