Friday, September 14, 2007

Oh, My Lord...Who Has the Time?

I just came across this in my daily Craftzine blog email:


The E-Bento daily lunch diary! I want someone to make me lunches like that!

9 comments:

Papa Bradstein said...

Right. Who even has the time for bowls? We just toss the food on the high chair tray and yell "Come 'n' git it!" Then, all 3B has to do is beat Barky to the high chair.

Anonymous said...

Do the writers of articles like that seriously believe that an mother has the time to arrange that sort of artistic presentation? Really?

Anonymous said...

(Aargh. Blogger just ate my comment...)

Would such beautiful presentation be counterproductive? I mean, who would want to eat the food when they can enjoy looking at it.

I love what my Craftzine feed throws up sometimes -- today there was a crocheted wedding cake. Really? Why? And how does it even occur to someone to crochet a wedding cake (knitted cupcakes don't provoke the same reaction in me. Then I simply think "Aww! Cute!)?

At least you can eat the bento box contents.

Henitsirk said...

Papa B: Around here we try hard enough to get the kids to quit fressing without any doggy influence.

HMH: I wonder about who has time to do all that. I can't read the Japanese, but evidently it's a real mother's blog, so there's at least one out there!

Kerryn: And I wonder what the kids' reactions are. Do the kids come to expect a lunch extravaganza all the time? I try very hard to avoid teaching my kids that food has to be gussied up...birthday cakes, yes. Ordinary food, no. Otherwise it's a never-ending spiral of growing expectations.

That crocheted wedding cake was pretty amazing if frivolous, though I seem to recall reading that it actually functions as stacked china storage boxes.

Anonymous said...

When I lived in Japan, I saw lunchboxes like this. Mothers honestly did go to all that trouble for their kids' lunches - and their husbands' too! Kiko's Daddy started a new job while we were living there. I was working a crazy job, really long hours, and his was part-time (although he did have other part-time work). But his colleagues were horrified: "Why doesn't your wife make your lunches?!" I laughed when I heard that! I make him lunches now - leftovers from the night before!

MaGreen said...

that's a birthday lunch if i ever saw one.

i can see using leftovers and having fun with the knife while cutting up fruit. don't think i'd end up with something quite so cute. sure as hell beats the balogna sandwiches my dad used to make me.

Mitch McDad said...

I'll take a cheeseburger.

Anonymous said...

We just got one of those kiddie cookbooks. It's got some fun recipes in it that I just have to try. We'll see... maybe I'll fine the time. When I'm dead...

Henitsirk said...

Helen, thanks for the confirmation that this isn't just a fluke! It's amazing how Japanese culture has retained these gender roles even in the face of current work situations.

Magreen: The thing I always think about with this kind of food presentation is: what exactly are those ingredients? Japanese food is so highly processed. At least with a bologna sandwich you more or less know what things are. (Though let's not dig too deep into the origins of that bologna!)

McDad: sometimes, though I dearly love Japanese food, only a burger will do.

LA Daddy: I know! I am constantly filled with plans that will never, never happen: the kids and I will bake cookies! The kids and I will sew aprons for each other! I will drop dead with exhaustion first!