
Planning and cooking family meals takes up around 10 percent of my total time each day.
Is that right? Wait a minute, that seems too small.
Another way to look at it is to take out the fixed time, like sleep (8 hours, LOL, I wish) and work (8 hours) (16-24 hours=8 extra hours in the day) and then getting family dinner on the table (2.5 hours on average, which includes meal planning, shopping, cooking, and clean up) takes about one-third of my "extra" time (2.5 hours/8). Let me say it again:
Planning and cooking family meals takes up about 30 percent of my total extra time each day.
That's time I could be using on other things, like exercising (or let's be realz, getting a pedicure), doing puzzles with Josie, reading the New Yorker, floating in the neighborhood pool, living the Fitbit life, teaching Josie to swim, going to the movies with my husband. The list goes on.
Somewhere along the way I decided it was important for all of us to eat together. That it is worth my time and effort. It's purely selfish of me really. I like sharing meals. It's one of my favorite things to do. So while I don't really love the planning and cooking part, the end justifies the chore of it all.
Sometimes I want to toss in the towel. I've considered Blue Apron and Plated, the services that do the planning and shopping for you, but they cost a lot more than just doing it yourself, so I haven't made the leap (I haven't ruled it out either, especially since a lot of my friends, working Moms like me, rave about them). I suppose I could just wave a white flag and give in to my husband's version of dinner, the one where we all stand around the kitchen sink eating bowls of Cheerios like members of a fraternity.
I haven't given up yet, though.