Wisdom from the old Roseanne show?

Remember that show, Roseanne?  The average family being two working parents and three reasonably normal children.  The usual additions of less than ordinary friends and relatives.  Although I would generally never have gained any wisdom from this show, I did once. 

It was a usual episode of the ups and downs of daily life of a busy family trying to get 36 hours of work done in a 24 hour period.  Roseanne, the mom, is trying to get an answer from DJ, the youngest.  She has asked him a question and is now wanting an answer.  DJ finally says that why should he answer, he hasn't talked in three days and no one has noticed.

I have often wondered if this could happen in a busy household, and I think it could.  Just because he isn't talking doesn't mean that he isn't looking at you when you are talking, nor does it mean that he isn't doing what you just asked, like homework.   Maybe when he didn't say good night back, you either didn't notice, or maybe you thought he didn't hear you.   He's not talking to his older sisters, cause they don't really talk to him anyways.

Often my kids and I have great conversations in the car on the way to school.  But I've had jobs where I started before they got up and ended after they went to bed.  When I worked two full time jobs, I still saw the kids in the morning and drove them to school, but when I returned at 11 pm at night, they were in bed.  What if one of them had not talked to me for three days?  I'm sure I would have noticed, I'm always talking to them about something.  But what if my day job had started earlier?

Dinner is not fun

Dinner is not the bonding moments seen on tv commercials. I have yet to have a dinner that didn't involve the words " I'm only eating the mashed potatoes", or "I can't eat that without ketchup", or "He's got more than me!"  I very clearly recall the time that I went into the kitchen knowing that I had to make dinner, and burst into tears. To go to all that effort and expense just to listen complaints after wards. We have lived off of nachos for the past 8 years.

Us women are so brainwashed into thinking that this is our duty. Of course, being the only adult in the family reinforces this. But what if there is a spouse? The media force feeds it to us on a daily basis that the feeding of the family is absolutely and totally up to us. Fact is, we don't even see these not-so-subliminal messages anymore.

For instance, I was watching an episode of "8 Simple Rules" where the kids grandfather has moved in as well as the kid's uncle, and the mom and three kids are still at home. In this episode, the two men are sitting at the kitchen counter, the kids are about the kitchen and living-room, and the mom is in the kitchen making dinner. She is the only one that works full time as a nurse in a school, and the ENTIRE FAMILY IS SITTING AROUND DOING NOTHING. I see this in almost every show I watch, every commercial I see, this is brainwashing, letting us think that this is the norm.

Just start watching these tv shows, and you will see that the women are always in the kitchen.  I actually watched a spy movie, where there was three men and one woman who were all hired killers.  And SHE was the one that was moving bedding around in the background, getting their room ready.  So ladies, you think you are out of the kitchen, but it's just those salad bags saving you time.

I revolted years ago, I haven't cooked a turkey since forever because I don't want to. When my boyfriend and I were dating, I had cooked us up some Chinese food at his house. When we were all done, he said, "but you didn't clean up the kitchen", and I said, "I'm not that type of girlfriend, you need a wife for that".

And yes, we are still dating.

On this page is my collection of recipes, entitled I hate cooking.