The spaghettios and burritos comment rang true, however. Particularly for families with both parents working.
I get how some people derive great pleasure from making a meal from scratch, but for people in a great hurry, it's one of many checkboxes. And time spent stirring a pot or slicing vegetables is hardly quality family time.
Totally agreed, but the fish sticks come out because dinner has to happen every single day, no matter what else has come up.
As an example, I take my kids camping a few times a year. I show them all kinds of things, like how to stake a tent, how to make a fire safely, etc.
If we had to do these things every single day just to cook and go to sleep, I suspect it would quickly devolve into running through the chores as quickly as possible while they stand to the side and poke at ant mounds with sticks.
We do make healthy quality meals and involve the kids with what we're doing, but this is certainly not an every night thing. Often, it's much easier to simply find a way to solve the problem and move on.
If you had to do these things every day, you'd get better at them and the kids would get good enough at them that they could do some things without your direct supervision all the time and you'd get used to them that they wouldn't be a significant distraction from your day.
> time spent stirring a pot or slicing vegetables is hardly quality family time
Teaching one's offspring what is and is not good to eat is perhaps the oldest and most fundamental task associated with raising young. It predates humanity by millions of years. If that is not "quality family time", I can't fathom what is.
I get how some people derive great pleasure from making a meal from scratch, but for people in a great hurry, it's one of many checkboxes. And time spent stirring a pot or slicing vegetables is hardly quality family time.