I don't see how going to a fast food place saves you time: it takes significant time going to the fast food place, waiting in line, driving home. And at home you can multi-task--while waiting for the food to cook you can put the laundry in the washing machine, sweep the floor...large numbers of household tasks.
The actual situation. I have just picked up my child from wherever they are and I'm bring them home. I can either spend upwards of an hour cooking or I can stop at a fast food restaurant in the drive through and get food immediately with no effort on my part physical or mental.
Who is waiting while food cooks? When I cook I am attending to the food the entire time. Perhaps if you are a heavy oven user you get time to do other things, but otherwise, no.
And laundry lol. To barely keep up with the laundry, I have to do a load a day and the on the weekend I do several loads. It wasn't like this before I had a kid, but everything grt dirt faster and more often with a child around.
Being a parent who works is _exhausting_. You're always weighing money vs time investment. In many cases it's just easier to buy food you don't have to make or think about then have to do the whole rigamole of planning and buying groceries and then cooking the food yourself. If you're like me and you order a head via an app, you don't even have to wait the few minutes fast food takes. It's right there for you and you carry on your way. I can now spend my mental energy on something else.
> Who is waiting while food cooks? When I cook I am attending to the food the entire time. Perhaps if you are a heavy oven user you get time to do other things, but otherwise, no.
Long long ago I had a neighbour who cooked ONE day per month and froze everything. He printed out a menu card for himself with 3 and 4 course meals. He used a table cloth with the fine silver utensils and fancy plates. He would sit himself down, look at the menu, pick something then move the food from the freezer to the microwave. It looked like a high end restaurant. His argument was that he hated cooking and didn't want to spend any time on it.
The house had a shared kitchen. The one day he cooked was hilarious. He cooked for 40-50 people (inc guests), made various kinds of soup, all kinds of meat, pastas, curries, deserts etc
He one time pondered buying a rice cooker to make better rice but decided it was to much like cooking.
The food went in plastic bags in containers, when frozen he would pull it out of the container to save space and avoid having to wash the containers.
I also know people who eat together. They have no further relationship. They take turns cooking. Small groups like 3 or 4 but also larger ones like 6 or 8 people. You do need space for that ofc.
If you really attend to the food for an hour it is probably a more nutritious and more sophisticated meal than the fast food? How much money are you saving in that hour?
Parenting is just hard work. I'm afraid it includes teaching how to cook.
By the time I pick my kids up from preK and kinder, it’s 5:00pm. Swinging by the drive though, I can have the kids in chairs eating by 5:20. Cooking a dead simple meal like spaghetti, we’re not eating until closer to 5:45, because of overhead in getting everyone in the house and situated to where I can focus on cooking while they play. It’s even worse if they have bad days, we’re eating closer to 6:00pm.
Nothing wrong with eating later, in fact we prefer it because fast food is kinda crap and I don’t really like them eating processed foods. But it definitely saves time, not to mention on the cleanup side too.
And no, can’t really multitask during the weekdays because the timing is so tight. I can do dishes as I go but that’s the limit because the kids start screaming at each other that their feet are touching or whatever the drama of the day is…
Yes and saving that time means there's more time to go to the park or the store on the way home, etc. without having to get everybody ready to go out again.
Also my kids are picky eaters (autism) so it's not like we only have to make one delicious and nutritious meal for everybody. It's more like two or three different meals, or my wife and I have to settle for buttered noodles or what have you. Eating out lets us get a different meal for each person and there's still a chance of the adults being able to eat something delicious and/or nutritious. Or we can get take-out for the kids and make our own dinner or vice-versa.
