# House chores



## Juve779 (May 31, 2014)

How often does your husband cook for you? I know that nowadays most families divide house chores, specially if they both work. My wife and i both work and we try to be proactive when it comes to house chores. I work almost full time 34hrs per week and for the last 3 months I have almost been working 39hrs per week, my wife work 2 days per week and some time 3 per week (4 hours per shift). I love eating different things so that we don't get bored eating the same too often. (I'm not a good cook, but I try my best. I usually get ideas for cooking from YouTube) sometimes I come home and my wife is tired from taking care of our kid, so I decide to cook. Other times, my wife has the meal ready by the time I get home from work, which is nice. However, there is times when she keeps cooking the same meals (burgers or pastas) I know that she puts a lot of effort in cooking the meal, but sometimes I get bored from eating the same thing. Asked her to look for meals on YouTube, but she seems afraid to try it). I'd like to know if your husband tries hard to cook for you or if they do not.


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## Holland (Aug 20, 2012)

On an average week he would cook twice, me three times, left overs or eating out a couple of night a week. He is a great cook and will usually do most of the cooking when we have dinner guests. We eat mostly healthy foods, I am veggo he rest of family aren't but eat veggo a fair bit. Burgers might be a twice a year food here, pasta once or twice a month. He works 50 plus hrs per week, I do about 8 hours of paid work. 

One of our fave things is to cook together, it is a great time to chat and laugh.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

I was a SAHM for 20 years then worked full time for about 6. When I went back to work my husband would cook dinners about 3-4 nights a week and after a few months I was tired of eating hamburger helper boxed meals and threw a hissy fit. 

So the trouble is, like me, you have a more discriminating palate and your palate is dependent upon your wife's desire to put some effort into meals.

Tough spot you're in! 

On your nights to cook, you could make double amounts and freeze the extra.

You two might cook together on weekends and freeze some dinner for during the week.

You could continue to encourage your wife to try cooking new dishes and hope she figures it out.

It has been my experience that the more demanding palate simply takes on the role of cook because it's very difficult to get a reluctant cook to do a better job when cooking just isn't their passion.


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## murphy5 (May 1, 2014)

i do almost all of the dinner cooking and food shopping. I like food too much, and she is a mediocre cook. also i work from home, so am more often available to cook supper, with her showing up at 6:15 hungry.

She cleans up after i cook, does all the laundry, misc cleaning.

We have a maid service once a week for $90 to clean the bathrooms, wash the floors, etc.


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## Mr. Nail (Apr 26, 2011)

My wife doesn't cook much any more. Since I don't like spaghetti bolognese I'm fine with that. Sounds a lot like you. The difference is she does work more hours than me. Now the trouble. I only cook about 3 times a week. The rest is leftovers, easy meals or fend for your self. I would cook more but truthfully Diabetes has taken the joy out of cooking for me. I still make interesting things but It's just no fun. And to the gals here. My wife appreciates me cooking but doesn't reward me for doing it. Does that make sense? 
MN


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## Redheadguy (Jul 30, 2014)

I do 90% of the cooking in the house. I quite like it, once we are over the hurdle of menu selection.


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## Giro flee (Mar 12, 2013)

I do almost all of the cooking. H will grill, order pizza, or make chili. He's not the only man I know that only cooks chili either, what's up with that? Out of all the meals to learn to cook what makes chili so appealing?


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

Giro flee said:


> I do almost all of the cooking. H will grill, order pizza, or make chili. He's not the only man I know that only cooks chili either, what's up with that? Out of all the meals to learn to cook what makes chili so appealing?


My H too. Goes all out on his chilli and opens a box when he cooks something else.

Chilli, it's a manly man's meal!


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## Rowan (Apr 3, 2012)

When I was married, we both worked full time. My husband cooked about half a meal a week. By that, I mean he would grill the steaks on Sunday evenings if I would prep them, put them on a platter, take them out to him and then make the salad and potatoes or other sides. 

OP, perhaps your wife has a less discriminating palate. Perhaps she simply isn't a creative or confident cook. Perhaps it's just not something she enjoys doing. In any case, when a couple shares household responsibilities, I tend to think that the person it matters most to is the one who should perform a task/chore - particularly if they are critical of the way their spouse does it. If more interesting meals are important to you, but not your wife, then it may simply be easier and more rewarding if you take over most of the cooking. She can handle kitchen clean-up after dinner, or some other task you dislike doing, if she doesn't cook.


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## EleGirl (Dec 3, 2011)

Mr. Nail said:


> My wife doesn't cook much any more. Since I don't like spaghetti bolognese I'm fine with that. Sounds a lot like you. The difference is she does work more hours than me. Now the trouble. I only cook about 3 times a week. The rest is leftovers, easy meals or fend for your self. I would cook more but truthfully Diabetes has taken the joy out of cooking for me. I still make interesting things but It's just no fun. And to the gals here. My wife appreciates me cooking but doesn't reward me for doing it. Does that make sense?
> MN


Do you reward your wife for the things that she does?


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## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

I do about 60% of the cooking. I'm definitely the more "adventurous" eater and like things that the rest of my family won't touch, so I end up cooking a lot of bland food


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## Faithful Wife (Oct 31, 2012)

Anon Pink said:


> My H too. Goes all out on his chilli and opens a box when he cooks something else.
> 
> Chilli, it's a manly man's meal!


I looooove a good home made man chilli. LOVE IT. 

No one cooks for me.


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

Faithful Wife said:


> I looooove a good home made man chilli. LOVE IT.
> 
> No one cooks for me.


It's hell being a good cook! People don't realize how hard it is to be a good cook and have a satisfying meal prepared by someone else!

The list of foods that I can order out, because no one makes them as well as I do, grows and grows....:said in a long suffering voice:..


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## Faithful Wife (Oct 31, 2012)

I eat at excellent restaurants nearly every night of the week, because I don't cook and no one else cooks for me...yet I insist on eating only things I love! :smthumbup:

It can be just as cheap as cooking for yourself if you do it right.

I'd still prefer lovely homecooked meals, but I get the second best thing so I'm ok with that.


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## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

FW--learn to cook! Restaraunts are nice, but the thing about cooking for yourself is that you can have a variety of things that no restaraunt offers. You don't need to be Gordon Ramsey, just learn enough of the basics to start tweaking and be creative. Youtube is your friend!

I'm going to try my hand at a citrus marinade chicken this weekend. There are zero restaurants in my area that will do that for me.

And when my family turns up their collective nose at it? More for me.


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## Faithful Wife (Oct 31, 2012)

I agree, I'm capable of learning to cook and there are plenty of ways to learn for free.

But I have dozens of restaurants within a 5 mile radius from me that WILL have ANYTHING I want, including citrus marinade chicken.

That leaves me with little motivation.


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## Mr. Nail (Apr 26, 2011)

Ele,
I've been stewing about that one since I wrote it. The honest answer to your question is "not enough". She likes half hour massages as rewards. Sometimes she will settle for chocolate.

The honest answer to my question is She knows what kind of rewards I want. Touches, kisses, hugs. She doesn't believe those should have to be earned, so I rarely get them. 

MN


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## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

Mr. Nail said:


> Ele,
> I've been stewing about that one since I wrote it. The honest answer to your question is "not enough". She likes half hour massages as rewards. Sometimes she will settle for chocolate.
> 
> The honest answer to my question is She knows what kind of rewards I want. Touches, kisses, hugs. She doesn't believe those should have to be earned, so I rarely get them.
> ...


She's right, they shouldn't have to be earned...but neither should they be rationed.


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## NobodySpecial (Nov 22, 2013)

Anon Pink said:


> It's hell being a good cook! People don't realize how hard it is to be a good cook and have a satisfying meal prepared by someone else!
> 
> The list of foods that I can order out, because no one makes them as well as I do, grows and grows....:said in a long suffering voice:..


Cooking isn't hard! Holy cow, no! But most people get recipe books instead of good, instructional cook books. WHY does a roux do what it does? What's the role of the heat and the flour?... 

It is financially prohibitive for us, family of four, to eat out all the time. And I like good food. Good food does not need to mean hours in the kitchen. We save that for the weekend days when that is what we WANT to be doing.

But a decent chili is as easy as following a recipe to dump ingredients in a crockpot and let it cook all day.

Brain surgery is hard. Cooking not so much. That is like saying laundry is hard.

Anyway, not criticizing you. If you have the means to eat in restaurants, and that is what you want to do, knock yourself out!


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## Faithful Wife (Oct 31, 2012)

She's not saying that the cooking itself is hard...she is saying that when you are a good cook, you are used to eating good food...so if someone cooks Hamburger Helper for you when it is their turn to cook, it is very hard to eat that crap.


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## NextTimeAround (Dec 15, 2011)

Good Housekeeping has never failed me for easy reliable recipes.

And I think they still have a cook book for make ahead and freeze recipes. cook all weekend and then pull a dish out of the freezer mid week.


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## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

I find the reverse is also true. When you're used to hamburger helper, you may not be inclined to eat ceviche.


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## Miss Taken (Aug 18, 2012)

He was always a great cook. I've grown into one and am definitely a "foodie" now. Since I'm a SAHM at the moment, I do the majority of cleaning and cooking (as I should be doing). He cooks because he wants to once or twice a week. When I am also working full-time, it's about 50/50. His cooking less also has something to do with the fact that my cooking has gotten* A LOT* better since we've met. I wasn't horrible but I wasn't great and hardly adventurous in the kitchen and had to follow recipes a ton in the beginning. Now I just cook. A dash of this, pinch of that, handful of this (and the cliche pinch of love lol) and the food tastes great. He used to be a better cook than me. Now we're equal and in some ways beat each other. 

I'm a better baker, bread-maker than him. I also prefer my steak (medium rare) over his well done, as does our son and when I BBQ for his family, his siblings. He's better with homemade hot sauces and his chili does beat mine lol. He also has more patience when smoking meats and cooking over the fire pit at the cottage than I do. 

I literally had to teach myself to cook from scratch. My mom cooked everything from scratch but she died when I was thirteen and only taught me some things before then. Still, the Internet has been immensely helpful for me in learning to cook. Personally, I love Allrecipes - Recipes and cooking confidence for home cooks everywhere and there are other frugal websites that helped me a ton because I wanted to know how to cook certain things from scratch back when we were broke to save $.


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## melw74 (Dec 12, 2013)

I cant tell you how many times i walk round and round the supermarket wondering what i am going to make for dinner....

I get bored with food, I try to cook a variety of meals for my hubby and family, just so it does not get to boring, but i have to admit.... sometimes i just really do not know, but my meals always seem to get eaten, so i know i am doing a good job.

I cook every week day for my husband..... Sunday ( the only day) he cooks for us all, he cooks breakfast, does a roast every sunday, and tea at night..... he does not mind as he very rarely works weekends....

But honestly.... From a woman that does the majority of the cooking...... you get bored with some of the food you eat.... and i get sooooo bored of trying to find something different to cook


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## richardsharpe (Jul 8, 2014)

Good evening all
my wife cooks, I clean and do food shopping. I can cook a bit in an emergency, but she is so much better that it makes more sense this way. Our schedules also mean that she gets home from work 1/2 hour earlier than I do, so we get dinner sooner if she cooks.


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## 20yrsofmarriage (Sep 29, 2014)

I've noticed that more men nowadays cook and are more, um domesticated. My hubby doesn't cook at all ( or clean unless I ask). I guess he figures he has me so why does he need to attempt to cook.


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## heartsbeating (May 2, 2011)

Some of us are more skilled at the eating and appreciating than the cooking. 

My husband enjoys cooking and is good at it. I've taken to cooking more in the last couple of years. Sometimes the meals work out, sometimes they don't. Gotta keep a sense of humor nearby. Cooking together has become something we enjoy.


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