There’s a specific moment in every mom’s life (sometimes it happens more than once) where it suddenly hits you — spatula in hand, a baby whining somewhere in the background, ground beef in the pan — that you’re going to be doing this forever. Making meals every single day for every member of your family, over and over and over. When they’re babies, when they’re picky toddlers, when they’re teenagers. When you’re exhausted, when you’re sick, when you’re overwhelmed. It’s a realization that often happens when we’re already pushed to the limits, and then we start thinking about all the unseen domestic labor we’re responsible for, over and over, day after day.
And one mom took to Reddit because she needed to know how she was going to survive this.
OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic. But in the subreddit /Parenting, the original poster (OP) shared that they are “dreading the repetitiveness of daily meals.” OP wrote, “I am having a slight meltdown about the prospect of having to make three meals, every single day, for at least the next decade or two. My baby is almost 10 months old and is now starting to have three meals a day. The idea that these meals are now a non-negotiable part of every single day is sending me into some kind of panic about the monotonous loop of domestic labor.” OP added that they are used to preparing one, maybe two, meals per day — sometimes none — and the thought of making three meals a day, that are often messy thanks to baby, is just too much.
“Is there anyone that can reframe this for me somehow or have any advice, or even just support that I’m not alone in this thinking?” OP asked.
Oh, I promise — you’re not alone.
I love that OP had the chance to share their woes, but then asked for real advice — they don’t want to feel like this forever, so what can they do about it? And Reddit came through, as the parents of Reddit often do. Honestly, I’m 11 years into this mom thing and I still struggle some days with the monotony of it all.
For starters, some parents were quick to point out that OP may end up with a picky eater — and then it’s less stressful, because you’re just warming up frozen nuggets and frozen pizza on rotation until your kid decides they don’t like those either. Others pointed out that OP didn’t need to set unrealistic expectations on themselves. “Babies/kids really can just eat the same stuff that we eat for the most part,” one wrote. “There’s no reason each meal needs to be completely handcrafted from scratch.”
Other parents suggested snack plate meals — meals that are just tiny portions of something your kid likes — as well as making the same few meals on repeat so it’s easier. Grilled cheese and canned soup, bean and cheese quesadillas, hamburger patties and frozen fries — those all totally count as meals.
One parent recommended, “Write recipe ideas down. Soups, casseroles, instant pot recipes etc. tweak them slightly and you have a whole new meal. I got really good at making white cream sauces for spaghetti or mashed potatoes. So sometimes I do an herb sauce, mushroom, or tomato cream sauce. Maybe I use spaghetti, maybe I top simple grilled chicken with it.” The idea is to go simple and easy and use less of your brain power on dinner than you thought you’d have to.
Because even some of the best comments were riddled with people saying things like, “I miss the days of a sandwich for lunch” as if that’s a thing you no longer can do. But you can! Feeding your kids doesn’t have to be Instagram-worthy or fresh and exciting — it’s OK for your kids to say, “Ugh, chips and a PB&J are boring.” You fed them. They’ll eat it. The end.
But even when you’re making the world’s easiest meals, even when you’ve meal-prepped, even when you have a plan — it can feel suffocating. And a few parents were able to give OP some ideas on how to push that desperate feeling aside.
“To quote Mary Poppins: ‘In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find that fun and snap the job’s a game,’” one commenter wrote. “Find what makes it enjoyable for you: simplicity vs variety, efficiency vs leisurely, etc. Meal prepping can help. It also helps to find things where you make one and freeze one.”
But my favorite part? “It’s still going to feel like Sisyphus a lot of the time, but there is fun to be had.”
It’s that kind of rebranding that helps so much. Instead of dreading the work or thinking about how it’s going to last forever, it helps to remember that even though there will be hard days, there’s almost always a solution to make it more fun or enjoyable or easier.
(And sometimes the easier thing is a sandwich for dinner.)
