Originally Posted by
wrp96
My mother wouldn't make something special for us but if we had tried it previously and didn't like it we didn't have to eat it. She did take into account certain preferences when deciding the menu like if the night before was something my brother absolutely hated, she would try to choose something he liked for dinner the next night. Also if we didn't eat our dinner we didn't get a snack later. By the time we were 8 and 11 my brother and I regularly cooked at least one meal a week, which meant we got to choose the menu that night.
This seems perfectly acceptable to me, and pretty similar to how things operated in our family. I rarely cooked dinner, but my Dad went to work really early and my Mom liked to sleep in, which I realize sounds weird in current times. So by the time I was about 8, I would make breakfast for my brother and myself during the week, as we had to be on the school bus right around 7 am. Usually it was just cereal or toast, but probably once a week I made eggs or oatmeal. In fact, in some ways I guess I did choose what I ate for breakfast and lunch pretty much every day since I was that age. Dinner was the one meal where I was sometimes forced to eat something I didn't like.
Tonight - Buffalo chicken wraps. Tomorrow I'm going to try to fashion the leftover chuck roast into tacos.
For
chgoeditor and others in the area, have you tried the One Off Hospitality (Paul Kahan) subscriptions? Basically you get a full meal for 2 people one day a week for 3 weeks, requires reheating. We found one that delivers to a drop off point in Highland Park for the next 3 weeks (Avec, Publican Quality Meats, Big Star) for $140 total, before tax and other charges. This one was Wednesday nights - decided to give it a try to make weeknights a little more interesting during freezing February.