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Comment by StavrosK | Hacker News Reader

Seeing these articles always illustrates how some things are out of the ordinary in the US, but which other countries take for granted. In Greece, for example, cooking a meal every day is the norm, as in many other countries I've been to.

I wonder how the US society has "forgotten" this practice.

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Time. Two working parents or one working single parent. Ideally just 40 hours a week, but could be more than that, depending on career field.

School for kids. After school if grades are struggling. Or after school if you're in an 'at-risk' category (see single parent or low income)

Formalized, scheduled, regimented sports/activities after school.

Formalized 'family bonding' events at schools or community centers that are, for all intents and purposes, required by societal pressures.

All of these things take time. Pre-made meals are an easy, convenient way to save time.

My parents both worked full-time (40h per week) when I was a kid in Germany. My mother cooked fresh daily, she just dropped by the supermarket on her way home from work, in and out in 10 minutes max. We went out to eat maybe twice a year. This was in the 90ies, but it is still very much the norm in Europe to cook at home, daily, especially if you have kids. To be honest, with the expection of frozen pizza, I wouldn't even know how to cook processed / pre-prepared food, we don't have a microwave oven in the kitchen (my parents had one in the 80ies and 90ies and only used it to heat milk).

We do all of that as well, except the "family bonding" events, so I don't think that's it...

Sample Size: 1

Not meant to be snarky, but honestly, the one thing I've learned in life is that just because I can do it, doesn't mean everyone else's life is the same.

One is not equal to zero, though. One data point is way, way more indicative of something than zero data points.

Okay?

Again, this is not intended to be snarky - if we're flexing anecdotal data, I personally know 40 families for who (whom?) my statements are true.

I don't understand what you mean. I'm saying your statements are true for Greeks as well, so it doesn't explain why Greeks cook and Americans don't.

Oh baby did I read that wrong. I read that to mean my family instead of all of Greece.

I do wonder what the difference is.

Oh, I see. I think maybe the boomers switched because of the convenience and didn't mind the cost, and then society forgot how to cook? Whereas here eating out a lot is very expensive, so we just didn't do it.

In the US poorer families have more free time (leisure time) than richer families. Examples abound: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/the-fre...

"Time" as an excuse seems unlikely as the breaking thing here. Even just mass cultural amnesia is more plausible.

The reasons are likely pretty complex and inter-related. Some are hinted at in the article.

Two reasons from my point of view: The decline in stay-at-home parents I feel would be a big one. With both parents working, the ability to cook 'from scratch' (for some definition of 'from scratch') 3 meals a day is greatly diminished. Especially with modern parenting responsibilities - try cooking that meal as a single parent with a young child underfoot.

Also, cooking requires practice and intuition, which can't come from reading a book or following online guides. These skills were generally practiced and honed in families. Once a generation forgets how to cook, that knowledge cannot be passed on and must be re-learned from the beginning. This is exacerbated with family members moving away for economic reasons.

The learning part takes a lot of time and some bad meals to start to get right.

I think you nailed it with your second point (most households here have two working parents as well). We only cook one meal, though, not three, so that reduces the workload.

> I wonder how the US society has "forgotten" this practice.

Two working parents and non-multi-generational homes.

> Two working parents

Over here you can't afford rent if both parents don't work, so that can't be it. Maybe the non-multi-generational homes, but not many couples stay with their parents, so that's probably not it either.

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