Sigh! I really wish that I had more time to write. But ever since going back to work, time has been really tight.
All those work and housework things are just using up every bit of time that I have!
Maybe I’m spreading myself too thin – I work, I cook, I wash (ok, ok with the washing machine!), I iron and I clean. I also have to take care of Big and Little Guy. Oh, I must not forget to credit Big Guy, though, who has been helping out more at home since I started work. Thanks Big Guy!
But back to the topic of cooking (see related post Can’t Cook? Bah!)…
My new colleagues and many people I’ve met can’t believe that I cook dinner after work. Most of them express a kind of wide-eyed, jaw-dropping, kind of surprise when I tell them so.
Is going home to cook after work so rare these days? I know many people who don’t do it because they:
- have a maid at home who takes care of cooking and all other chores
- goes back to their parents’ home for dinner
- eat out
- order tingkat
- simply can’t cook!
Now, I too could have opted to do 1, 3 or 4, but I don’t want to.
Why?
- It’ll be great to have a maid/helper handle things at home. But I find it not very viable for me, as she will be alone at home in the day time while Big Guy and I are at work, and Little Guy at school.
Plus, all those horror stories about maids make it a less enticing option.
- Eating out – we do eat out a couple of times a week, and already we find it a headache deciding on where to go and what to eat.
The main reason that I choose to cook after work, is that we want to have wholesome, healthy, dinners. Eating out usually means more salt, oil and whatever other stuff that’s bad for our health.
- Tingkat – I’ve always had the impression that tingkat dinners are mass-cooked in factory kitchens, many hours before dinner time. And I don’t like it that they leave the tingkats outside our door before we come home from work – who knows who might have done what to the food? I also don’t see much difference in ordering such dinners and eating out, other than eating in the comfort of my own home. I could just 打包 freshly cooked 煮炒 (and paying a little more, for peace of mind).
Although eating healthily is the chief motivation for my insistence on home-cooked meals, there are some other reasons that motivate me to cook for my family.
I have heard male friends and strangers telling people that ‘my wife can’t cook’ or ‘my wife is a lousy cook’ and other variations of that.
Now, if my husband were to say that to his friends, I would be totally embarrassed (and maybe my husband would be too)!
There was an incident many years ago when I met up with an old friend. He told me that he eats out every night because ‘my MUM is a TERRIBLE cook’. This incident affected me quite deeply. I was single then. There and then, I decided that if I had kids, I would NEVER, NEVER ever let them say such a thing to their friends – ‘my mum can’t cook/ my mum is a terrible cook’. It’s embarrassing and sad if a kid should have to say such truths about his mother.
I’m no great cook, but I can cook decent meals. Meals that get the thumbs-up from Little Guy. Although Big Guy is not the expressive type, the fact that he clears his plate every night already says a lot for him.
I don’t know – perhaps I’m old-fashioned, conservative, sexist, or whatever. I’m for the motion that all mothers should learn how to cook, and cook often for the family.
Agree?
Oh, and I don’t care if the man in the house is a great cook or if there is a maid to take care of the cooking. The motion stands, regardless.
Agree?! Huh? Huh?!
