Modern mums cook up ‘stress’

BY way of an understatement, there must be a happy medium between the parenting methods of the so-called good old days, where it was held that if you spare the rod you spoil the child, and the 21st century approach where kids are not only regarded as equals but even leaders in the inner workings of families.

A Flinders University survey of 22 mothers found that getting dinner on the table was “a high-pressure juggling act” that makes mums want to throw a tantrum or get takeaway.

“Accommodating kids’ sport commitments, juggling allergy issues, meeting health guidelines and finding the time to cook is a major stress,” the survey found.

Members of my parents’ generation recall dinner times when little ones were threatened with punishment or going hungry if they didn’t eat what was in front of them.

This survey suggests that in 2019, instead of giving our kids that speech about the starving children in Africa, we are more likely to prepare them another dish if the first one is rejected.

And you can layer on the pressure parents now feel to make sure that they are ticking all the food pyramid boxes when it comes to dinner and school lunches, especially with lunches being the subject of random inspections by the health narcs outraged by choc chip biscuits.

I am not a mother – although I would note that in 2019 if I choose to identify as one it is my right to do so – but I have always done pretty much all of the cooking at home because I enjoy it.

But I admit to being guilty of not sticking to my parental guns like my forbears. Rather, I will tailor meals to suit their individual appetites, occasionally even grumpily preparing new meals when the first one is rejected.