Posted on 09/07/2014 1:47:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A team of researchers at North Carolina State University published a study challenging the idea that home-cooked meals are ultimately “better” for the family as a whole. […]
Their time spent accompanying parents shuttling children to checkups, grocery shopping, and, of course, preparing food, led the team to a set of real world conclusions at odds with stereotypical parenting wisdom. For all of the health benefits associated with food prepared at home, the task presented parents, particularly mothers, with a slew of economic and interpersonal stressors.
“One could say that home-cooked meals have become the hallmark of good mothering, stable families, and the ideal of the healthy, productive citizen,” their abstract reads. “Yet in reality, home-cooked meals rarely look this good. Leanne, for example, who held down a minimum-wage job while taking classes for an associate’s degree, often spent her valuable time preparing meals, only to be rewarded with family members’ complaints—or disinterest.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
We still do dinner ever night around the table with no TV, etc even though I only have one kid at home. It was a good thing for my kids when they were growing up. We used to get out the encyclopedia and play name the state capitals or what language is spoken in this country games when the kids were in elementary school. Made dinners fun. And Grandpa loved to tell stories about what life was like when he was the kids’ ages. They loved to hear about the alternative uses for the Sears Catalogue LOL
And as long as my dad was alive, Sunday dinner was promptly at 1PM after church. After he passed, I started doing Sunday dinners between 4-5PM because that’s when I was hungry :-)
Family dinner is so important to maintaining the health, and not just physical health, of a family.
That's the way it is in my household. And, as an E6 in the military, I'm hardly rich.
I work to pay the bills and my wife stays home with our two young sons. She cooks and cleans and still finds time to relax. I cook the boys breakfast on the weekends to give her time to sleep in a little bit.
Funny thing is, I believe we actually save money with her staying at home. Our restaurant bill is almost nil, except for Friday night when I'll order Dominos and once or twice a month I'll take the family to McDonalds. I bring home-cooked leftovers to work.
The media wants us to believe that it's impossible to make it unless both parents are working. This is a lie. We save money on daycare, a second car payment, restaurants, and still have money to get nice things like a decent TV, computers, cable and internet, jewelry, clothes, tools and hobbies. We own a modest home in a solidly middle-class subdivision and drive a 2014 Toyota minivan. One of these days I may buy a used pickup truck, cash out of pocket, but we don't really need it. I tuck away a little into a savings account each month. I use no more than 5% of my credit card limit, mostly just to keep my credit score high.
According to the conventional wisdom, we should be broke but we're not struggling at all.
In a *completely unrelated* story, leftist demagogues across the country renew their push to raise McDonald’s wages by $10 per hour.
The Enterprise Of Maligning Enterprise (And The Clergy Who Make Matters Worse)
Townhall | September 7, 2014 | Austin Hill
Posted on 9/7/2014 2:16:29 AM by 2ndDivisionVet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3201363/posts
Higher minimum wages raise the price of outside-the-home dining, forcing families to stay at home. Moms disproportionately affected. /S
Here’s just a quick off-the-cuff comparison, based on my experience only:
TO COOK AT HOME:
Look in “20 Minute Meals” cookbook, plan the week’s meals, and make up a grocery list - 30 minutes
Weekly grocery shopping for food and sundries- 60 minutes
Make a meal each night for seven nights and clean up after – 5 ½ hours
Total time – about 7 hours
BUYING FAST FOOD MEALS:
Wait in line 10 minutes each night for seven nights at Starbuck’s - 70 minutes
Wait in line an average of 18 minutes each night for seven nights at McDonald’s – 2 hours
Serve and clean up the beverage and fast food wrappers each night for seven nights – 40 minutes
Weekly grocery shopping for sundries – 45 minutes
Total time – about 4 1/2 hours
You can use that 2 1/2 hours that you saved every week to watch a couple Law and Order reruns.
And I won’t even mention how much money we save..
Really, only females can cook meals? At my house.. we all do the cooking. What BS
I don't let females in my kitchen. It's my kitchen, dammit.
/johnny
The people who have created that liberal society all have servants to cook their food.
Is this going to turn into “the government has to feed kids dinner, too” or “government provides frozen, prepared healthy dinners with SNAP”?
Read it carefully.
This is just another in an increasing list of so called “scientific/educational studies” pushing for the control of the food supply.
Pushing for community dining, not restaurants, is the dead give away.
Late-30’s daughter of a neighbor commented recently that their family ate out so much because they couldn’t afford to buy groceries. Just bizarre thinking.
Look there is just something about cooking which is overall, more feminine.
Sure there are (tons) of exceptions, and some guys are truly excellent cooks.
But basically it is just something which women are better at, and that is that.
Period.
And frankly, they seem to enjoy it.
What in the world is it with liberals, always trying to screw up the world.
Women are better cooks.
Agreed. I do small auto repairs, and little fixits around the house mostly of a plumbing nature. I’ve hung a security door, done tile backsplash tile repair can R & R the toilet.
I can’t stand being sick and unable too cook for my family. Feeding the people I love is one of the biggest ways I show my love. I don’t cook for just anyone because when I cook I go all out whenever I can. When I say all out I’m not talking about fancy or expensive I mean everything I can possibly do from scratch being limited only by time and energy.
Cooking and related activities like gardening and shopping are great life skills to teach your kids. If you hate to cook because you are a bad cook practice makes perfect. Watch some cooking shows. Follow tips and recipes off the internet. There is no excuse for being an awful cook unless you are lazy then it looksike passaive aggressive resistance to an activity that is essential for family.
I get great satisfaction from giving my family wholesome nutritiious meals.
If we have leftovers I get even greater satisfaction watching them all squabble over them
LOL!
I’m kind of terrotorial about my kitchen too
I have to let go if I get sick enough
The kids are starting to have an interest in cooking-well the 17 y/ o boy is pretty decent already for a typical kid of his age now my 14 y/o is getting interested.
One advantage of cooking well is if you get sick people miss your cooking and will help so they can learn all your secrets
Excellent points!
We save money on daycare....
***
And even better than being economical is that your choices allow your precious children to be cared for by their loving mother rather than by some paid stranger.
Awesome job!
Good comparison.
And, of course, it saves even more time with the home cooking to deliberately plan for leftovers to be used for other meals. (I am sure you do this, too. Just putting it out there for the less experienced.)
Truthfully, cooking and cleaning do take it out of you. However, splitting the chores creates its own problems, unless tasks are semi-permanent.
That is, for example, the husband cooks the meals all the time, and the wife does the laundry all the time. With other divisions for other labors. And yes, though they don’t like it one bit, children must participate in both routine chores and picking up the slack when one or the other parent is unavailable.
One of the biggest tasks, floor cleaning, is finally starting to be conquered and transcended with robots, which are getting quite good, even if they still tend to be noisy. And because they can clean floors a lot, they make the home feel cleaner than just infrequent cleanings can do.
Ooooo pet peeve time!
I love to cook but not for other people.
Whether you work or not, why spend your time making home-cooked meals for picky eaters who never all want to eat the same thing anyway and usually just give you grief in one way or another with their complaints, special requests, petulant silence, wasted food, etc? They never offer to meal plan, shop, prepare the food but are quick to tell you what you ‘should have cooked’ instead.
When I was growing up you ate what was put before you and you were grateful for it. You never asked for your food to be cooked differently or to have something else besides what was being served. I never saw that behavior at any of my friends’ homes either.
That is not the case in today’s world where everyone is ‘special’.
Put a gallon can of beans and a can opener on the table and take yourself out to eat. Done.
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