Poll: Who wears the apron?

[38Chevy454]

DW does most, I do some cooking. I typically cook breakfast because DW does not really like breakfast much and I do. Therefore if I want good breakfast it's up to me.
We both do the cleanup, and split grilling based on what else is going on.

 

[pacergal]

I do most cooking, DH does grilling. I rarely bake anymore, except for the holidays or special celebrations. We generally fend for ourselves for breakfast and dinner, and I make our bigger meal at noon or thereabout.
We both share kitchen cleaning and most other household chores.

 

[footenote]

LOL - DH makes a (rather elaborate omelette) breakfast

I make dinner

(He cleans / loads dishwasher. I unload.)

 

[MarieIG]

We're both still working. DH usually gets home first and cooks. If I get home first I'll cook.

He really enjoys cooking and wants to do more of it in retirement.

Who am I to stop him?

 

[audreyh1]

I do all the smoking, BBQing and grilling outside which I gather is an unusual role reversal, but it really started because during our RVing life DH was out chasing stuff with his camera during prime cooking time. Then I really got into that kind of cooking.

 

[RetiredAt55.5]

cleanup?

Surprised no question about the cleanup part.

My wife does more of the cooking, I do the egg breakfast or french toast on the weekends for example.

Regardless, almost without exception I always do the cleanup and putting leftovers away.

Funny, my wife is definitely the better cook but she's also a messy cook. I stay out of the kitchen when she's cooking since if I watch I have to comment on the mess she's making. And that never ends well ....

 

[Ronstar]

I grill and run the smoker. DW cooks inside. Neither of us has an apron. We are not sophisticated cooks.

 

[FIREd]

When I was married, I took over the cooking duties early on. It wasn't by choice really. The wife hated to cook. Since I am rather a foodie, I had to learn to cook.

 

[Lewis Clark]

My wife and I made a deal when we first got married: One person cooks the meal, and the other person cleans up from the meal.

She hates to clean up and generally prefers to cook, so she cooks most of the time when we share a meal. Our sleeping schedules are different, so we usually eat breakfast independently.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I cook our main meal of the day and clean up. We fend for ourselves for the other meals. If I don’t cook then we each grab something. We also eat out once or twice a week.

 

[GravitySucks]

I do most all of the cooking as the German Shepard and Calico cat are terrible cooks.
No one bakes. Or cleans very much lol.

 

[Gumby]

I can and sometimes do cook, but it is largely under the young wife's purview. If something needs grilled or smoked, I do that. I am on permanent KP duty.

 

[VanWinkle]

Wow! Had to check if I had written this!

I do 99% of our breakfast and dinner cooking. Not bad if I say so myself. I not only wear an apron but somebody gave me a chef's coat as well!

DW likes to bake and does a good job and also makes great sandwiches, which I suppose I could do but she likes to do it. Our unspoken rule is the person who doesn't cook does 90% of the clean up.

We also host Saturday night dinners on our deck for up to 20 all summer long; we've been doing this for almost 20 years and have it down to a science. We tend to share the prep, cooking and cleaning for that.

Here's one of our Saturday night Paella specials:

You are definitely out of my league!! Nice dinner.

 

[karen1972]

I cook, he cleans. I love cooking, even took a culinary boot camp. Meals are elaborate because I can dirty as many dishes as I want and not have to do them Ha Ha.

He knows the bigger the pile of dishes, the more likely he is getting a super delicious meal and its totally worth it.

This is also why our food bill is still twice the average Americans even though we mostly eat at home. Lots of herbs, spices, specialty ingredients.

Though he will throw a veggie burger in a pan and heat it up for lunch.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I do most of the cooking, for two reasons:

A. DW doesn't like to cook;
B. She's a stranger to any kind of spice -- her Irish heritage, I guess.

When I was a kid, Mom (who was a very good cook) used to make a Finnish soup called mojakka as a treat for my Dad. It was the blandest, most flavorless thing I have ever eaten short of communion wafers. I kind of rebelled from that experience, and have fully embraced chiles, ginger, cumin and curry powder in my cooking, although I do have to tone it down a bit for DW.

 

[Aerides]

I don't mind doing most of the cooking, but that's the easy part.

As we say in 2019, the "emotional labor" is the heavier lifting: Deciding and planning. Whipping it together is the easy part, it's the shopping, the figuring what to have today, what's not the same as we had the last week, what looks good at the store, etc.

Like right now - no idea what we'll have for dinner. DH will say "just get something good!"

 

[braumeister]

B. She's a stranger to any kind of spice -- her Irish heritage, I guess.

That certainly sounds familiar. My Irish mother only knew one way to cook everything -- boil it to death.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

She's a stranger to any kind of spice -- her Irish heritage, I guess.

Is she related to Marge?

 

[grasshopper]

In our working days I did all the housework and cooking along with the other pool boy duties. 14 years of retirement later I chop, she cooks, and I clean up, including dishes by hand.

 

[kgtest]

Based on a typical two (or more) person household, I wonder how cooking chores are split up among members here.

I enjoy cooking, but DW doesn't, so I do nearly all the cooking. OTOH, she is an extremely talented baker while I'm barely competent in that area with the exception of my artisan bread, so she does just about all the baking.

I consider myself the butcher and the sous chef. Wife does all the hard work heh. I don't enjoy cooking, but I can grill just about anything and do enjoy it probably mostly because its outside.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

That certainly sounds familiar. My Irish mother only knew one way to cook everything -- boil it to death.

DW's specialty is corned beef and cabbage, made in the slow cooker. It's like Irish mojakka.

 

[kimcdougc]

I cooked for 36 years. When DH retired in 2015, I told him I am done. Funny how we eat out so much more now that he does 90% of the cooking. He does a fine job too.

I wear an apron when I volunteer weekly in the community center kitchen.

 

[rodi]

Hubster does the bulk of dinners. It started when we were both working - he'd get home earlier and start cooking, and I'd get home with hungry kids from daycare... to a prepared meal. Now that we're both retired I do about 25% of meal prep and about 80% of kitchen clean up. A reasonably equitable distribution of labor.

 

[flintnational]

I cook and DW cleans up. This is a pot of beef bourguignon I made in Avignon last fall. Okay, for the purists, I used a cote du rhone.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I’m the cook and DH cleans up. I do the grocery shopping too. I have trouble deciding what to make after 35 years, though. But if I ask DH or DS what they want for dinner, I get...crickets. Sigh...Fortunately DS can cook for himself, at least some. No aprons in our house.