My teenager asked if she should take it too

Started 24 April 2026 · 8 replies · 62 hearts · read 895 times

LuPreston, UK · 24 April 2026

3 months ago

My teenager asked if she should take it too Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

Practical question, and possibly a silly one.

The thing I have not been able to find anywhere is how people manage this when the week has no fixed shape at all.

I would like to know what other people say when asked, because my current answer is too long and invites more questions.

My household has adjusted to about half of this and the other half is causing small daily friction that I have not known how to raise.

Thanks in advance. Practical detail welcome, however dull — the duller the better, honestly.

SalmaManchester, UK

Somebody in this circle said that children notice how you talk about food more than what you eat, and I have thought about that constantly since.

OrphBath, UK

Gently disagreeing with Salma, or rather adding the other half of it.

I batch cook on a Sunday and it has been the single most useful habit. On the days I have nothing, there is something.

WrenFacilitatorLeeds, UK

If you come back later and say what you actually ended up doing, that is the post the next person reads. Threads that stop are the ones that leave somebody stranded.

NualaArmagh, NI

Reading this at half past six with a cup of tea and nodding at every line.

6me too 6

BobbieRochdale, UK

Reading Wren, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

My partner took over the evening cooking for two months during the worst of it, and asking for that was harder than it should have been.

OskarWarsaw, PL

What I did not anticipate was how much of parenting is snacking alongside somebody, and how strange that felt when I did not want to.

WrenFacilitatorLeeds, UK

Facilitator note: if any of this has landed close to home while reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of service worth finding.

11me too 1

OrvalWinnipeg, CA

The school run and the evening are where my energy dips, and reorganising the week around that was more effective than anything else I tried.