Resentment…over cooking dinner

Resentment is a word that I don’t much care for. It doesn’t do the body good to hold in resentment, and it certainly isn’t good to let it get the better of you. But this dinner thing…I just can help it.

I am a wife and a mother. My kids are in their teens (one is 21 in fact), and since everyone is (or should be) self-sufficient, I find myself getting resentful at the question, “What’s for dinner?”. Am I alone? My husband is really sweet about picking up dinner on his way home from work sometimes, and I do appreciate that.

It is other things that bother me. I am still the one responsible for figuring out dinner. Every.single.night. How wonderful it would be for someone to do the planning, ordering, calling, etc. for a week or so. It is like nobody knows how to use the phone to call in an order, and they can’t decide on what they want. Really? It all falls back in my lap and it is so frustrating.

Here is how the conversations go:

With son:
Son: What’s for dinner?
Me: I’m not sure yet.
Son: Is Dad picking something up?
Me: I am not sure, I am probably cooking something.
Son: Well, what are you going to cook?
Me: I’m not sure – I’ll figure it out
Son: Chicken?
Me: I don’t know!!

It goes downhill from there.

With my husband:
Me: Honey, what would you like for dinner?
Him: Whatever you want is fine with me
Me: Should we go out?
Him: It doesn’t matter to me
Me: Okay let’s go out then
Him: Okay
Me: Where do you want to go?
Him: Whatever you want

At this point, I just want him to decide on something. Anything. I don’t want to have to figure out dinner in any way, shape or form!

After all these years of dealing with what’s for dinner, I’m just plain tired of it. It is my responsibility, yes, but it is tiresome, and something I dread dealing with every day. Our kitchen is really hard to work in for one thing, so even though I like to cook, it is made difficult thanks to this kitchen that is not user friendly. Sometimes my husband offers to barbecue, which is wonderful! However, he waits until really late to get the grill fired up, and we don’t eat until late at night. Sigh.

Thanks for letting me rant. But am I alone in feeling this way?

Tags: General, Marriage