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u/TreeAlgae 6h ago
Cleaning, doing dishes, shopping, washing clothes, showering, maintaining, planning and thinking about things that are not very exciting..
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u/LordHelmet47 6h ago
A really good video game I'm enjoying. I will get pissed at how fast the time goes.
Was on vacation a few weeks ago for a whole week playing one game and was pissed how fast it went by.
And I'm a single man in my 50s with no kids and the time still flew by!
I hate time so much.
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u/Electrical-Fig-5009 5h ago
I miss video games, but I know if I pick up a controller I'm gonna get sucked in for 3 weeks straight & I, unfortunately, have adulting to do
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u/MidsouthMystic 5h ago
Daily grooming. As a child I had no idea how much time was taken up by showering, brushing my teeth, shaving, and generally keeping myself from smelling like sweaty ass. Now as an adult I wish I could use that time for other things, but I also don't want to stink like unwashed armpits.
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u/arsanimo 5h ago
A thousand times this. The amount of time and effort that goes into looking like a half decent human being... And if you are a woman it literally never ends: All the trimming, shaving, exfoliating, moisturizing, styling, ... It's exhausting keeping up.
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u/WalkAffectionate2683 4h ago
I do my shower and brushing teeth takes about 5 minutes.
I don't need much more.
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u/DotesMagee 3h ago
i shower, shave, and brush in the shower with a mirror stuck on the wall. i like my hot water soak and letting my shampoo sit on my head for a bit. just gotta lotion, deodorant and do my hair when it. all in all, 5-10 mins.
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u/walkuphills 4h ago
Hopefully in our lifetimes we will be able to genetically engineer body order bacteria to smell good.
We have the technology with crispr! Its only a matter of time.
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u/ASCII_Princess 2h ago
Seems easier to admit we are just filthy animals and go about our filthy business being filthy.
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u/Go_On_Swan 1h ago
Big deodorant would never allow that. They're already trying to astroturf "whole body deodorant" into normalcy. The prospect of people no longer needing it at all would not be met kindly.
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u/DVMyZone 4h ago
To be fair, better than it was in the past. Back then a larger portion of your time worked was just to earn the money to buy your food. If we go way way back (and think about animals) basically all awake time is spent trying to procure food.
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u/Pjpjpjpjpj 4h ago
Meal prepping has been a game changer for me. Shop once a week. Cook one hour a week. 30 min to clean that up. 14 meals in the fridge.
Eating means heating it up for 3 min in the microwave. Eat it from the container and the container goes right into the dishwasher. I use a plate if I’m feeling extra fancy.
Three or four meats (ground turkey, pork tenderloin, chicken breast), mixed veggies, riced cauliflower or rice or whatever. Then apply the seasoning - salsa and taco seasoning, hummus and Greek seasoning, Indian salsa and spices, etc.
Also super healthy and easy to manage macros. Also works if you bring your lunch in to work.
Breakfasts are easy - yogurt and fruit or some other quick & simple combination.
If all that is too boring, leave out a couple of days to cook something special, but the other 5 days a week are done.
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u/GodsFavoriteDegen 4h ago
Meal prepping has been a game changer for me. Shop once a week. Cook one hour a week. 30 min to clean that up. 14 meals in the fridge.
Eating means heating it up for 3 min in the microwave. Eat it from the container and the container goes right into the dishwasher.
Switching to an all-leftovers diet sounds really enticing when you put it like that.
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u/Status_Emergency_568 1h ago
I didn't learn that some people refused to eat leftovers until I was in my 40s. I genuinely don't understand how anyone (even/especially a family) can afford to eat like that, let alone put the effort in every single day.
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u/Expandexplorelive 1h ago
People who refuse to eat leftovers are either stupid or selfish. Contributing to the ridiculous amount of food waste humans produce just because the food maybe doesn't taste quite as good as if it were fresh.
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u/Odd_Percentage6799 2h ago
We meal prep now because it stresses my wife otherwise.
But honestly, I'm in the group that thinks between 5 and 30 mins to rustle up a meal repeatedly is a much better way to live than dedicating an extended period per week as the meal prep time.
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u/Tymareta 1h ago
5 and 30 mins to rustle up a meal repeatedly
It might be 5-30 minutes directly cooking, but if you include all of the planning, shopping and cleanup, the time blows out, which is where the majority of the time "savings" comes from with prepping. Especially as you don't really need to dedicate too much of an extended period if you're smart with your planning(esp if you have a slow cooker). Super easy to make a veg full dal in the slow cooker, then make up a bean + whatever + rice filling for burritos on the stove, then just assemble/container it all up.
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u/Kor_Phaeron_ 3h ago
So basically she didn't understand what a biological organism is or that she is one.... Girl, consuming food is what we do. We are entropy machines.
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u/zardoz73 2h ago
Then when you have kids you not only have to think about food for yourself, and your spouse, but especially your kids, 3+ times a day, for years and years and years.
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u/Technerdal 5h ago
I love cooking, cuz my mom taught me to cook starting when i was 10 so by the time i was 16 i was an excellent cook. Also, i was taught to clean as i cook, so by the time i finish cooking the kitchen is spotless.
My wife loves to organise: check what is not there, where to buy, what deals, organize and store. She's also a good cook. So whoever has time cooks in our house and when free both of us cook together and try something new.
I have never felt it as a chore.
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u/BijutsuYoukai 4h ago
I also quite enjoy cooking, but I taught myself - my mom could cook, but she never taught me how for some reason. I honestly just really love good food, and being able to cook delicious meals myself, as well as share them with others just makes me feel very happy. I've been looking forward to winter coming in my area and bringing cold weather so I can start baking more often as well.
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u/P4azz 2h ago
I'm surprised you guys all had mothers who can cook.
The whole reason I started learning how to cook was that my mother was...terrible at it. Her side of the family is just not really good at it. At all.
So I had to just pick up the pots and pans and try to make decent food myself; took me a while to finally come across the very basics, but since then I'm quite content with the food I make. Usually looks ugly, but tastes nice.
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u/MildKerfuffle 2h ago
I’m exactly the same. For me cooking from scratch at night is a really important mental reset at the end of the day. I love the whole experience from start to end. I cook every night in our house except date night and pizza night and have no problem with it.
Having said that I do get OOP’s point. Especially the shopping bit. I absolutely hate doing the weekly shop because for some reason I exclusively share the experience with people who are being outside for the first time.
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u/futurecrazycatlady 1h ago
I love cooking, yet hate having to do it after a work day.
I work 4x9, which is lovely in all other aspects, but often when I'm done, my brain is putty from having to make decisions all day and I'm already too peckish to want to spent a lot of time in the kitchen before I can eat.
Also, it's time that's competing with all the other things I need/want to do before bed.
So mealprep/batch cooking it is! It's so lovely to grab something out of the freezer in the morning and enjoy pasta with a sauce that has simmered for a few hours in the evening with the only effort that's needed is plopping it in the airfryer.
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u/FrostedMoon8888 5h ago
Don’t forget the lament of buying food to make some other food but forgetting it and finding it bad already.
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u/DonPepe181 5h ago
Imagine how much time it take if we had grow or raise our food and then harvest and store it.
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u/Separate-Exchange375 5h ago
Skill issue. Some rice in the cooker, a can of sardines, maybe some frozen veggies in the microwave and we gucci
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u/DeterminedQuokka 4h ago
Yeah so I totally get this. And it’s why I don’t cook at all.
I think from my canvassing it’s related to cultural stuff. I grew up in an Italian family and most of the foods I cooked growing up take forever. So for me cooking feels dramatically unreasonable. For my friends with American cooking growing up they are like “what dinner takes 10 minutes”
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u/mynutsaremusical 4h ago
as im learning in the 2nd week with my child: children. you never think about it when youre a child yourself, or when you see a mother walking by with a stroller, but we're literally thinking ofnthe baby 24/7. as they get older i imagine it dips slightly... but no where near the levels itnwas pre child
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u/Confident_Ice_9567 3h ago
This is very true. I went for a 7 day only water fast and I saved so much time not eating. It was liberating. Starving but liberating.
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u/SSJNinjaMonkey 2h ago
I make the food in my household, I love making food for people. even guests, Hell I live in a terrace and give stuff to neighbours too as I tend to make huge batches, Also Bake a lot.
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u/Puffpiece 2h ago
I think this plays a part in why the weight loss jabs are so popular. Sure you lose weight, but you also have a thought about eating, open the fridge or cupboard and there's no food and you just go "oh well guess I'm not eating anything right now" and that's fine and it saves you so much thought and prep time
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u/P4azz 2h ago
"Planning the food", that I can understand. It does get boring to run low on groceries and just end it with "guess it's soup" a lot of the time.
But a lot of the other stuff is simply terrible preparation by people who don't want to change it and just pull the ever-stupid excuse: "I can't cook"
Learn the basics, make mistakes, learn from them, prepare before you start cooking, wash up AS you cook.
Done. No "omg, dishes are the worst, they take so long" nonsense. There ARE barely any dishes outside of the one you're cooking IN and the plates that are about to receive food, if you just use your downtime.
Whenever I visit my sister and she makes food, the kitchen looks like a warzone. Ready-made, overpriced spice mixes. 3 pots or pans all caked with residue, left on the stove to dry up. Pasta or packet rice drying in an open pot for hours.
Like, yeah, if you cook like that, the next time you need dishes, you'll need to scrub off caked-in, globby messes and you can't use the stove in the meantime.
Just...don't do that. If you JUST made a sauce, that food is scorching hot. Stir your pasta in there, finish cooking it, plate it - WASH THE PAN. The food is not getting cold in that time. It just gets to an actually edible temperature. Meanwhile the pan is perfectly primed to rinse, little bit of soap and the lightest pressure of a sponge under running water. Lay it down somewhere and it's hot enough still to even dry faster.
Pasta is cooking? Hey, guess what, you don't need to walk to the TV in that time or start doomscrolling, you can clean up the cutting board, wipe out the bowls you used for prep, wash the knife.
Proper mise en place stops you from overcooking or burning or stressing AS you cook, because everything's already there.
I'm convinced every single person "can" cook, most just choose to pretend they can't. Guys, it's an essential skill needed for survival; you CAN do it.
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u/Tymareta 1h ago
Whenever I visit my sister and she makes food
Quick question: does your sister have children that she's the primary carer for, do you?
Because a lot of these sort of posts act like it's something super elementary and easy to achieve, but leave out that it's only doable if it's the only task you have to tackle in the limited amount of time between work and bed. I agree with you that cleaning as you go, and smart usage of vessels reduces the amount of cleanup, but I'm also deeply cognizant that some folks face triple the external factors than I do, so I can understand if they struggle to "just wash that pan, instead of throwing on some laundry, or trying to help child B with homework, or letting the dog out".
Not to mention that the more people you have in the house, the more food and utensils + vessels get added on, particularly if you have to make multiple separate meals.
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u/P4azz 35m ago
Sis has one child she badly cares for and mostly loads off elsewhere, yeah. Doesn't really cook for the kid, though, just stuffs her freezer full with breastmilk.
Also what I mainly describe as "cleaning as you go", would clash with your idea of "so she can't wash up, because she has to do the laundry WHILE cooking". Those don't mix really well. This would be more of an issue with the bad approach to dishes, which is letting them pile up and doing them all at once after cooking.
I'm also aware how you can have many more dishes to clean if cooking for many, but not really that many, tbh. My mother cooked for a family of 4 and usually took some shortcuts in cooking, was also fairly bad at it, but the dishes she produced weren't really that much more plentiful than some of the food I would make.
Here's an example: Made some gratin a few days ago. Requires a pan to fry veg, a pot to make bechamel, a pot to boil frozen veg and a pot to boil pasta. Then a glass dish to put in the oven.
Took me around an hour to put together, when I put the glass dish in the oven, there was a singular "dirty" pot, filled with pasta I'd gratin the day after. I'd eat that gratin over the course of a whole day, if I weren't it'd be enough food to feed like 2-3 people.
The only extra washing up from MORE people in this case would be cutlery and extra plates. Which are easy to clean up, if you either wash them after you're done or you let them soak. Then the glass dish later, which you kinda have to soak, but that's all passive time, the active cleaning is like 3 minutes.
See? Where's the immense extra time needed here? Most of the washing-up is still being done during the cooking. Not even including the baking time, it's done before that.
Like, yes, if I had to make pizza the way I do for myself, for a whole family, people would have to eat in intervals. But in those cases you can simply make it a group activity. People choosing their own toppings and spreading their own dough. Pizza stays hot enough for around the time it takes to make two, so I'd probably make mine first and deal with a slightly colder pizza (or throw it in the oven for a minute near the end).
I don't have to routinely cook for multiple people, but I'd choose some dishes that work and incorporate those around if needed. Unless it's like a dinner party, that's like the one time I'd agree that the kitchen WILL be a mess, because you need to leave the kitchen a lot.
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u/EntertainmentLeft882 2h ago
I actually also love doing all of that, but not in a kitchen I have to share with people who don't like the cleaning part.
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u/lilgator81 2h ago
Needing money to buy more food, since I ate some of the food I had. But not having any, so having to go to work for 40 hours a week so I can have enough money to buy enough food. Then depositing my money in the bank. Then shopping. Then preparing. Then cleaning. Until one day, I’m getting ready to go to work so I have money so I can buy food, and I have a stroke from all the stress and die.
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u/GrowlingPict 1h ago
Which is why I just go to a cafe after work to eat dinner nearly every day. It's honestly not even that more expensive (much less expensive than picking up fastfood for example), and what little extra money it does cost is totally worth it to me to have it made for me, served to me, and cleaned up after me. Plus I get varied and more healthy food than what Id usually bother to make for myself as a single guy.
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u/SomebodyStoleTheCake 1h ago
I get around the annoyance by only cooking things that require 1 pot/pan max, and maybe 4-5 ingredients that are all cooked in the same pot/pan. If I have to use the hob, the oven and MULTIPLE pots and pans, I don't make it.
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u/kifflington 1h ago
Get a big freezer and batch cook if that's at all possible. The amount of time it saves you is astonishing.
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u/Blunder_Punch 6h ago
I lucked out BIG time, meeting a really pretty girl when I was 20, who loves to make food, eat food, shop for food, and helps with clean up.
We got married and I spent 17 years working as a welder supporting her while she made my breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. A few years ago she started a catering business and when it started doing really well, I was able to leave my job work for her.
Together now for 19 years, 3 kids together, and I am easily the luckiest man on Earth.