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....often spent her valuable time preparing meals, only to be rewarded with family members’ complaints—or disinterest.”...

I grew up on a small family farm. We grew all the vegetables, beef, chickens, eggs and pork that we ate. If my cranky brother or picky sister didn't like the food prepared by my mother they DID WITHOUT. That was the rule. Nobody got special treatment.

My mother, God rest her soul, made a big pan of cathead biscuits from scratch every morning of the week. Daddy rendered our hogs, made our sausage and smoked all our hams and bacon for many years. We worked together. Some of the fondest memories us 5 kids share of home life were the industrial scale canning sessions we had in summer. You see, we grew enough food to help support the extended family too; my elderly aunts and uncles.

We had cows for milking and butter to churn. We were very poor financially, but ate like kings. The 5 of us kids WORKED every day for the benefit of the family. That is an attribute sorely missing from todays intact families, few though they are.

Late in life, my mother became disabled. My father stepped into her roles as cook and housekeeper. That's how families work.

Pardon my rant. Got to get ready for church, then in the afternoon, my wife and I will be cooking a large meal for her terminally ill sister and her family. We love to cook together. Make some 5 star meals too.

The common thread in my rant: Family and Work.

I fear for our nation....