General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Woman weeps to senator over Social Security cuts: "There's no way for me to eat less!" [View all]SheilaT
(23,156 posts)myself and my siblings. I'd learned to cook by the time I was five. It's not so terrible if a child fixes the meals at home.
My mother was a nurse. She packed up us five kids when I was 14 and moved us across the country to escape an abusive, alcoholic father. We were desperately poor. This was before food stamps. When I had babysitting jobs I used the money to buy food for us. Mom worked the 3-11 shift, so she was not home in the evenings. We fended for ourselves. We cooked. We got our homework done. And she worked as many extra shifts as she could get, because we needed the money. I can recall going for weeks without even seeing her.
Physical dexterity and stamina to stand by the stove are trivial issues. Any 11 year old can do that. The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that overall we've become so dependent on fast food that almost no one can cook any more. It's really not that hard. And it really is a lot cheaper than fast food or prepared foods.
Being poor is not a lot of fun, but it's also not the end of the world.