Making dinner is the worst part of my day. It’s not the cooking itself, or even the endless chore of deciding what to feed our family of five. I find meal planning and recipe perfecting enjoyable. I actually like cooking for the most part, and I love sitting down to eat together when dinner is done.
My dislike is the atmosphere. We eat dinner at 5 o’clock. By the time 4 rolls around, my kids are tired and cranky. I don’t allow snacking after 3:30 so they’ll actually eat their dinner (I’m a monster, I know). Add the exhaust fan to the kids whining (or flat out fighting on a bad day) and my patience suddenly disappears.
Once in a blue moon, prepping dinner is such an ordeal that I don’t even enjoy the meal once it’s done, and that sucks. I don’t want to continue dreading a regular occurring part of my day, so lately I’ve been trying to change it.
I’ve started making dinner immediately after lunch. That sounds ridiculous, but getting the chopping, measuring, or side baking done when the kids are happily playing on their own is a game changer. Having the first steps done before our witching hour begins is worth the pre-planning. If you are also struggling with dinnertime, I suggest trying this one thing for a week.
Of course, all the prep in the world can’t negate the noise level that stresses me out when cooking. To counter that, as soon as I start to feel my mood souring I ask our Alexas to play whatever song I can think of. I almost always start with You’re Going to Miss This, then move on to Watching You, then The House that Built Me. After that, it’s usually cheesy sing along songs – once I’m clearly happier my two little girls will bust into the kitchen to sing & dance with me. Their current favorites are Golden, Bad Blood, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and Unwritten, but those are sure to change by the time this is published.
Lastly, I’ve started leaving off the kitchen lights. My kitchen faces West, so there’s enough natural light to see by, especially since all my prep work has been done by then. When this changes from the (unnecessary, totally ridiculous, extremely outdated) daylight savings time change, I plan to try cooking by the exhaust fan light, it’s much more soothing than the big light.
Disclaimer/Reality Check: I don’t cook fancy meals – picture what a typical family was eating in the 90’s and you have a pretty good idea of my cooking. Maybe making cooking more of an experiment or endeavor would make it better for me, but I’m straight up not willing to try at this time. This column will be about motherhood, parenting, and homemaking for the most part. Most importantly, I don’t ever want this column to make another mama think she’s not doing enough. If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you are, you’re doing great, keep it up. Sing it with me: no-one is doing it allllll!
