Exhausted feeding my family

[winterrrain]

It's not even a large family.

2 children and two adults. My Husband, my son aged 10 and my youngest aged 2.

My eldest and husband eat three cooked meals a day. Every day. They also expect a plate of fruit and a plate of salad to be out in the evening to snack on.

They all eat at different times and won't eat the same food. My Husband only eats his own country's cuisine and my Son doesn't like spicy food.

They reject any ready meals or processed food (I guess in a way that's good but he odd cheat meal I'd like as a break).

My Husband also likes a drink of tea made with milk and Cardamon in which is a faff to make and he has a few times a day. He also has a milkshake which contains banana and nuts in the morning.

My Eldest has a hot chocolate in the evening and water throughout the day but brings me the glass each time to refill as he will only drink it with ice and lemon in which he apparently can't make himself 🙄

They're both quite fussy and don't like a lot of food which can be batch cooked but my Son will eat spaghetti bolognese and shepherds pie but only the meat can be frozen he won't eat the mash if it's been frozen and he can easily tell.

I'm spending all day cooking and cleaning up after the family.

I work three days a week from home. Husband works full time from home.

My Eldest has a cooked meal at school.

They both like an omlette for breakfast. No toast and butter or cereal for these two 🙄

They have hot meals for every meal of the day.

Since I had my youngest I'm struggling with energy to do it all to be honest.

AIBU?

I don't think there's a solution unless I tell them to get their own food 😂 But wanted to know I'm not being unreasonable.
Any tips to make things a little easier?
Any batch cooking recipies I could think of?

You've made a rod for your own back. I'm asian and my dh wouldn't dream of behaving like this and even if he did he wouldn't get away with it. I have a voice though and would tell him to make his own. Your son is learning bad habits off his dad and you need to work on that.You are perpetuating a stereotype of asian men and being a downtrodden wife. Not all Asian men are like this and even if your dh is it doesn't mean you have to put up with it.

Food wise cook one curry, take the kids portion out. Otherwise you lower the spice level for everyone and if your dh has an issue he makes it himself or has some green chillies on the side. If you want to eat together then give your son a more substantial snack when he gets in to tide him over till dinnertime.

If DS wants lemon in his water, why can't he cut some lemon? If you and your husband are both in the house why aren't you taking turns to make the drinks?

Can you get your sons to start helping with the cooking? My children are 3 & 6 and they both help with tasks such as chopping vegetables, grating cheese, stirring pots, weighing and pouring ingredients etc. My 6yo makes himself toast in the morning and my 3yo sets the table.

You have 3 other people in the house and I genuinely don't understand why they aren't doing things.

Do your children a favour and teach them some life skills. Your children will struggle when they leave home if you continue with the current setup.

Do yourself a favour and declare one say a week "sort-yourself-out day" and refuse to make anyone else's meals that day. They will hopefully become more capable of helping and more appreciative of what you are currently doing.

@LuckySantangelo35 you asked if I had time for anything else apart from work and cook, as I said I cook 3 meals a day most days and don't batch cook. Not sure what the answer to that is. I'm a hospital doctor attached to a university, so work is a big part of my life. I attend several conferences a year, often overseas, research and teach. So work is vocation, hobby, passion all roled into one. And yes, I toss-up cooked meals- the omelette, the fresh salads, the cous cous, the sourdough bread, the stew in the slow cooker.

@dazdaz2

that makes sense. If your work is also your hobby. I have hobbies outside of work and I like to go to the gym and fitness classes regularly which I wouldn’t have time to do if everything I ate had to be homemade right down to tomato sauce!

This popped up for me. I have to know, @winterrrain , did you take anyone’s advice onboard? Or are you still doing a ludicrous amount of cooking?