As I have posted here, my wife and I, after commuting 1 hour each way to and from work, had time to bus kids to their extra curricular activities, and still had time for home cooked meals.
Where I live, everyone, men and women, works nine or ten hours days, with an hour commute to and from work.
Everyone is getting home around eight o’clock, eight-thirty.
Even if you’ve shopped during the weekend, who starts cooking, exhausted, at eight thirty?
Sure, cooking can be fun... on the weekends. When there’s no pressure to just get something on the table because everyone is starving. But during the workweek? It’s just one more exhausting time suck making life a nearly-impossible grind. Especially for moms with little children.
I’m not mad at anyone who drives through McDonald’s. I don’t understand how you did it.
And I don’t think it’s “a plot” or due to “laziness.” Americans (with jobs) have never worked harder.