Welcome to Meal Plan Monday, our weekly feature where we talk all things Meal Plan. This week I’m handing over to Victoria from Mummy Times Two!
Why Meal Planning Would Not Work For Us
The Other Half comes from a family who meal plan, his mum is super organised. As children their meals were planned in advance, the shopping was easy and there were no arguments at the dinner table as everyone knew what to expect. It’s a tempting prospect, and under normal circumstances- if I could ever work my way round my incredibly disorganised mind – one that I would be very tempted to try. After all, there’s little that frustrates me more than thinking what to cook each day, that everyone will want to eat.
There is however in our house a very good reason why meal planning would never work, and why it’s not a route I would ever choose to go down. Number One (my eldest) has Asperger’s Syndrome, which for those of you who haven’t come across it before is a type of Autism. She like many individuals on the spectrum, loves routine and finds change both stressful and difficult.
On the surface, that sounds like a great reason to have a routine with our meals, right? After all, she would love nothing more than if we always had chicken on a Monday, or Pasta on a Wednesday. The order she craves in the world would be there set in stone. Her life and mine by default would be easier. Well, most of the time at least…
You see the problem with creating a routine – any routine – is that we can’t guarantee that life will always work that way. There are days when meltdowns are rife, when I would love nothing more than to wrap my daughter up in the protective bubble of routines, but I have to plan in other ways for her future. You see life by its nature is unpredictable; there are holidays, days out, power cuts, and trips to friends. A million reasons why any plan I create will have to be deviated from. A million reasons why for us it’s better not to start a routine in the first place.
I want my daughter to have independence, to reach her potential and part of that is about learning flexibility. I have to prepare her for real life, and for us that means incorporating as much structured change in her life as we can, making her meal choices as varied as we can and keeping her life as real as we can.
If that means, I have to think each day what I can cook, and if that drives me a little (or a lot) crazy, it’s a small price to pay.
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It’s really interesting to read a completely different perspective on meal planning. While I think it makes my life easier, this clearly isn’t the case for Victoria and her family. Thanks so much for sharing with us!
I would love to follow meal plans but it is just sheer laziness on my behalf! I also have son with Aspergers and although he does like to know what’s going to happen, we are lucky in this has never really been the case with his food (probably because he eats anything and everything at any time!). You are so right though, we do need to encourage our Aspies to get used to change and to develop coping strategies for when they are faced with something new!
Argh! I’m just too disorganized to follow meal plans. I really think it’s amazing that people manage to do it at all!
That makes total sense about why meal planning doesn’t work for her, as getting her daughter into a routine and then one week it not working would be even worse than no routine to begin with x
Thats so interesting, I love finding out different ways people get through life. It makes sense for you not to do meal planning.
I’ve never thought about meal planning that way but I can see why it would be difficult for you as a family. We’ve just started doing it this week x
Meal plans tend to not work for me as well as I am always on the go, so I just have to decide to cook something on the spot although I try and prep when I have time x
I love this – we can’t meal plan either,at times life just gets in the way, sometimes it’s easier not to have a plan in the first place x
I love the idea of meal planning but never manage to keep to a plan. Even just the basic idea of chicken on Monday, pasta on Tuesday etc seems to be beyond my ability.
It’s not for everyone!
I have never thought about why meal planning couldn’t work for other people as always thought it was an answer for all. Thanks for sharing your view.