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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.fastcompany.com/91496750/new-second-shift-burning-out-both-parents

We are a dual working parent household and I so wish we had understood how awful it would be.

We both work in office, commute 30-60 min each way, and work 8-9 hour days. We thought this would be a reasonable setup, with one going in a little early and the other late to handle the morning and evening kid wrangling.

But it has just drained our entire life away. There is always a mess in the house (and now the yard, yay spring), weekends are errands, 7 piles of laundry, cleaning, yardwork.

We don’t make the kind of money we can outsource, like in the article above where they order out for dinner (I think us Millennials order the most takeout of any generation?).

We have no nearby family, no extra cash, and every moment is spoken for. And of course now apparently the good schools we slaved to afford to buy zoned for don’t matter because there won’t be any jobs for our kids.

Just a PSA to GenZ…[/quote]

The things that helped us during those younger children years:

Prioritizing sleep- getting enough sleep made us more efficient and less tired. 
Getting an every other week cleaning lady 
Doing laundry one load at a time throughout the week
Double or triple batch cooking on the weekend, we also cooked enough to bring in leftovers for lunch

Its was still a slog, but it was much more manageable when we did those things.

[/quote]

We cook from scratch every night. We dont eat casseroles or things that keep well for 2-3 days nor pack well for lunch. Plus my spouse and one daughter is a vegetarian which complicates meal planning. [/quote]

Hilarious you think casseroles are the only thing that will “keep”.

Batch cook and use your freezer. Buy those one cup silicone freezer molds. Make a giant pot of pasta sauce and freeze in one cup blocks. Does your family eat chili? That also freezes well.

Roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes also freeze really well and can be heated up in an air fryer in 7 minutes.

Get creative with your meal planning. Make a double portion of protein Monday. Eat it with a side of roasted potatoes and some kind of vegetable. Tuesday can be rice/other grain depending on preference bowls with the same protein.  Get a rice cooker. That night while you’re prepping dinner make a big pot of pasta. Wednesday will be pasta night, using your delicious frozen premade sauce. [/quote]

[b]Our time is not in making sauce — what exactly are you doing there, cooking down raw tomatoes?  We mix olive oil, pureed tomatoes, fresh garlic and herbs and it’s ready in 15 minutes of simmering. [/b]

The time suck in food prep is vegetables. We roast eggplant, sautéed green beans, salads which have cut cherry tomatoes, onions, cukes, carrots. The fresh vegetables take a lot of prep, and frozen precut veggie do not cook right unless you are making a blended soup.

I do cook meat ahead of time. [/quote]

Only 15 minutes of simmering?? I usually make a meat sauce, so I brown the meat and then I start with plain tomato sauce, add diced tomatoes, and other vegetables like roasted peppers, onions, a small amount of carrots, fresh herbs etc etc. I feel like a good sauce needs to simmer at least an hour.

That said 15 minutes is still 15 minutes. On the nights we eat pasta I make the noodles at some point before dinner (the night before or I've been known to do it while preparing breakfast) so all I need to do is warm up the noodles and the sauce I already froze.

Also sauteeing green beans doesn't take that long. Salads can be made easier. Why don't you make quick pickled onions? You chop them all at once and they last a few weeks in the fridge and I feel like they add a certain extra something to salads. Cherry tomatoes don't need to be cut.

Roasted vegetables can last a few days in the fridge.[/quote]

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