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Times have changed in the kitchen
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Published: September 10, 2009
Baby, we've come a really long way since our grandmothers' day.
In just two generations' time, the roles of husbands and wives have morphed considerably, a fact I was reminded of last week when my grandfather uttered the following sentence:
"But who will cook for him?"
He was referring to my dad, who is 59 and was going to be at home for a week without my mom. And he was really serious.
I am sure my mom had to bite her tongue as several responses to my grandfather's question came to mind, but she wisely stuck with something along the lines of "I'm sure he'll manage."
When my mom told my husband and I this story, Mike's only response was a snort of laughter. The idea that I would worry about how he would manage to eat while I was away was as foreign to him as the idea that he would have to entertain the same worry about me.
Had we been married 50 years ago, however, things would have been quite different. As a wife, I probably wouldn't have even left my husband alone for a week, barring an extreme emergency. And if I did, there would likely have been little stacked Tupperwares of meals labeled with the day and heating instructions.
My mom's generation was somewhere in the middle. There was a little more freedom to come and go, but there was still an expectation that wherever you went, you'd wind up back in the kitchen by 5 p.m. — or at least swing through the drive-thru on your way home.
It's interesting to think about how the next generation will negotiate things. Will cooking at home be a lost art, relegated to the back burner (so to speak) because no one sees it as "their" job? Will husbands come to embrace jobs wives once routinely took on? Or will there be a rebound, with wives finding joy in what many once found to be a burden?
If my household is any indication, it will likely be a combination of all of the above. We rely on convenience foods more than my parents' generation did. And my husband makes a mean Pasta Marinara. But I also find that I enjoy preparing family meals.
As for my dad, he made it through the week just fine — and there wasn't a Tupperware in sight.
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