my kids hate my wifes cooking what can i do?

Question

i am the stay at home parent and i cook all the meals and when she tries the kids hate it, every thanksgiving which my wife wants to cook she makes things the kids hate except the turkey, last year she put sour cream in the mashed potatos, it was awful, i am not looking forward to this again, what can i do

Answer 1

i always put sour cream in the mashed potatoes, and even though my husband hates sour cream, he loves my potatoes. what's wrong with y'all?
maybe insist that you want to help her with dinner this year and you make the potatoes the way you want them. what she's doing is selfless and it seems rude for you to be complaining and allowing your kids to talk so badly about their mother's cooking. think about how much it would hurt her feelings if she knew you all felt this way.

Answer 2

OH how I understand! My mother is one terrible cook and eating her indigestible meals - prepared with great love, mind you - was one of the most tortuous things of my childhood. Thanksgiving was one of the worst.

I agree with another poster - have everyone PLAN and then cook the dinner together. You know, as a family - children included!

Plan it out first - decide on the recipes (which will not be changed) together so people won't get surprised at the garlic and sour cream in the potatoes, or butterscotch chips in the pumpkin pie.

With printed recipes in hand, you can parcel out the tasks - and everyone can have a hand in preparing the meal, setting the table - and helping with the clean up.

That way, you can run interference - and have some good old family fun at the same time.

Good luck -

Answer 3

Have her go to a cooking school --- maybe for Christmas Give her a gift certificate for a cooking school .... or a culinary school near by. I know that doesn't help you with this Thanksgiving . Maybe ask her if you can help her and gently say that remember last Thanksgiving none of the kids. Ask her if this year can we all pitch in to help her out have the kids do a little something have it a family meal make it fun this year. I would talk to the kids first and tell them that they will not have to do much maybe mash the potatoes or make a tossed salad. this way giving your wife time to relax and kind of let you in charge of cooking or if she still wants to be in the kitchen you guys can kinda help out and make it a family cooked fun thanksgiving dinner. or everyone sit down to a family meeting and each person write down on a piece of paper a chore on the meal and another slip of paper write down as to what they want in the meal for thanks giving dinner. meaning every one write down the entire dinner food.

Answer 4

Tell her that this year you want to do the cooking and that if she wants she can help I mean if she is the one that works tell her she needs to rest and be with the kids while you do the side dishes or let her do the turkey and you do everything else that is the best thing that you can do or give her a cook book and tell her the truth it is better this way so that she knows that her cooking it not all that great I mean don't say it hurt her feeling but tell her it would be better this way.

Answer 5

Hey, I put sour cream in MY mashed potatoes too! I love it! Anyway, in my house my kids eat whatever I give them or they don't eat at all because I don't believe in catering to anyone's specific appetite. This is especially since I make sure to include at least two things in every meal that I am sure they will eat, and they have to take a "no thank you" helping with the rest. This means they have to have one tablespoon full of whatever it is they don't want to eat.

As far as a solution, perhaps you could ask your wife (who is sweet for wanting to make dinner for your family in the first place) to seperate some mashed potatoes into a different dish before she adds the sour cream? This way you can please your children, if that's what you really want. If it's such a concern, why don't you take over potato duty?

Answer 6

Sour cream in the mashed potatoes sounds fabulous to me. I would ask if you could help put the meal together. Maybe you can put together a couple of things you and the kids like. If it means a lot to her to be able to do thanksgiving, I'd let it go. It's only 1 day a year.

Answer 7

Talk to her and tell her that you do not like sour cream in your mashed potatoes. You also need to understand that she is the step parent so the step children will find wrong in something. Do the Thanksgiving dinner together and have fun.

Answer 8

Just tell you wife that you want to do cook Thanksgiving dinner this year and she just sit back and relax. If she question, just her the truth about her cooking skills. If she want to do better then she need to take some cooking classes in the evening for adult education class that held at few of your local high school in the evening. Which I am taking now...its lots of fun too. They last for 3 to 5 wks and it nice because you actual do the cooking there in the class room.

Answer 9

It's one day out of the year. Suck it up and eat it and act like you like it. I'm not a great cook and I know there are some horrible meals I've made and my husband always tells me that was good after the meal, even though I know it wasn't. I'm sure there are times you cook and she doesn't like it.

Answer 10

Why is she so adimant about putting ingrediants that everyone else does not like?

Both, (not just her) need to come to a compromise.

And whatever you do, do NOT criticize, put down or embarrass your wife in front of the kids. If anything, you SUPPORT your wife in her efforts in trying to please everyone. Your kids need to see that you and your wife are together. It almost sounds like you have "teamed up" with your kids. This can also be a trigger for her to be determined to do what she wants to do.

Be her friend, not your kids. They need to see that. Otherwise, for this Thanksgiving, you're the real turkey! ;-)