Adult pleasures

By Amy M.

C'mon, get your minds out of the gutter, I don't mean THAT kind of adult pleasure. I'm here to discuss some of the other domestic pleasures I have recently begun to enjoy, making me feel like -- gulp -- an ADULT.

I suppose by most accounts I've been an adult for some time. I've been married for more than 10 years and have a 4-year-old son and another baby on the way. I have a mortgage, a roomy family sedan and a 401K. I pay the bills instead of shoving them in a shoebox or giving them to my daddy.

But until recently, I scoffed at the idea of domesticity, namely cooking. The size of our kitchen demonstrates how little I cared about it when we built our house four years ago, considering it can barely hold two adults at one time. If we ever move to another house, first on my wish list is a bigger kitchen.

My friends and former co-workers who knew me at the height of my "un-domestic" days would laugh if they heard that. I was the one who had proudly tried virtually every Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers frozen entrée. But now sentences like, "I love my crock pot" or "I can't wait to try that recipe" frequently exit my mouth. I even have recipe Web sites bookmarked on my computer. And I was so thrilled when I bought a new crock pot recently that I told anyone who would listen about its timer feature and "warm" setting.

Don't think I limit myself to crock pot meals. I've become friends with my skillet, and the oven and I get along pretty well, too, because I also bake! I hosted a holiday cookie exchange and was so excited about it that I experimented with four or five different kinds of cookies before deciding what I was going to make for the exchange. I used my oven more that month than in the previous six months combined.

So what is it about these domestic chores that make me feel like an adult? Is it because I associate them with stereotypical mothers and grandmothers? Is it because I now have to worry about providing proper nutrition for someone other than myself?

The reasons don't matter. I'll admit that a few years ago, I was uncomfortable with the idea of seeming :domestic," probably because of the feminist tendencies I had been nurturing since I was a kid. But then I had a baby, and I realized caring for my family is what's important. Not only important, but incredibly gratifying.

I'm mature and self-confident enough to know that enjoying something like cooking doesn't change who I am or what I believe, at least not in a bad way. The little girl who once marched around her block chanting, "Whatever boys can do, girls can do better" is still there. And now she can bake a mean cookie.

Amy M. lives in Pennsylvania with her son and her husband. She works full time as a writer/editor for a large university.

Comments

[RobinP]

My sister is 32 and when she was a teenager and in her early 20's,microwaving a can of Spaghetti-o's was her idea of a well balanced meal.
Now that she is married and in a beautiful home with a huge kitchen,she can whip up a delicious meal that would make you drool all over yourself.
It's amazing.

I think there is just a point in your life when you realize preparing good meals for your family is another way to show you love them.

I try to cook but Rich and Lillianna don't eat the same foods as I do so it's very tricky for me. Sometimes it's just frustrating but I'm trying to find a happy medium!