Re: Re: Worklife (was quark)

[Guest guest]

>

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>If you want to stay home and take care of your children, that can't really

>be assigned a monetary value, and I don't think I need to tell you the

>reasons why home-schooling is better than government " education. " But if

>it's just about the cooking, shouldn't a halfway-decent computer programmer

>be able to hire a cook and have money left over?

Actually we did that, and that's when I started thinking about diet. The

lady was a GREAT chef, but her choices would often be something like a big

bowl of pasta sprinkled with vegies and a few shrimp. Which was " in " at the

moment, but it was so foreign to me: my Mom was from the South, and meals

centered around a big chunk of meat and vegies (starch was a sideline and I

rarely ate it). I started getting ill, but didn't know it, what happened is

my food aversions popped up again and I started getting insanely angry at

the pasta. Silly, I know, and I didn't tell HER that, she was a great lady,

but then I had to think, what SHOULD we be eating anyway? Turns out wheat

does make me very ill, but I didn't eat it much until someone else cooked it.

Now our meals are SO complicated I don't think I could get anyone to do

them right. I do work from home: and 3 employees and my husband are here

too. We all have lunch together, which I cook. We have to cook something,

because programmers otherwise tend to skip meals or eat nothing but pizza,

and now with the kids they really need better nutrition.

In addition, my son is tube fed (long story, but he's doing well

otherwise), and the docs gave us this canned stuff to feed him with, which

he started reacting to. So researching nutrition, I'm asking myself, WHY

are we feeding this kid a mix of canola oil, karo syrup, and soy powder for

years on end? It just doesn't make sense. So then it's my job to come up

with a mix that will actually feed him pretty well but will also go down a

tube and that won't cause digestive problems. He can't take much food at a

time, so he has to be fed every 15-20 minutes, which is also hard to manage

time-wise. I DO have a nanny which helps a lot though.

Add to that the fact that it turns out at least me and my husband have

rather large reactions to gliadin, and our office manager is on Atkins, and

the problem isn't just cooking food: it's figuring out what and how to do

it. Also when feeding 5 adults, I worry a lot more about food-poisoning

issues than I would otherwise, and most people who have worked in the

kitchen don't meet my sanitation standards (like, you do NOT lay down

lettuce in the kitchen sink!). Which is where NT (and you-all) have been

very helpful.

>But why should you have to choose, anyway? I'm a programmer, too, and 90% of

>the stuff I do at work I could just as easily do at home. Even if you can't

>work something out with your current employer, there must be someone who's

>willing to hire you to work part-time from home, especially if you don't

>mind a small pay cut.

I agree -- and at home is the way to go! Work hasn't been hard to get

(knock on wood), and our first retail product will be for sale this year

(an airline reservation system, how's that for timing? It's for small

charter plane operations though, and they seem to be doing ok). I do work

part time: it's just that I get behind on stuff and then start ranting!

I've been transitioning to writing books, which means less dealing with

clients on an immediate basis (see, that's why I type so fast!) while the

other 2 programmers do big system design. Our household has become a sort

of commune, really, with 3 women and 2 men and 2 kids and we all pitch in:

but I get more of the household stuff because I'm the one with all these

crazy ideas about grass fed beef, kefir, worm bins and chickens.

The average woman/man though, has to deal with a lot more pressure, and

what I'm hearing is that people have pretty much given up on " the home

cooked meal " . I mean, I can put some beans on to boil and go back to work

-- my office is next to the kitchen -- but how does one fight traffic at 5,

get home by 6, then cook a dinner? Even a packaged dinner is difficult. The

whole " normal American life " seems seriously skewed to me.

The only way I can figure to do NT and be a working woman is to do a

community concept: where the " at home " people do the gardening/cooking part

and some other people do the commute/earn lots of money part. But communes

don't work unless they have a " boss " or a unifying concept or good

structure of some sort. Ours works only because I fire anyone who doesn't

work out :-)

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " Heidi Schuppenhauer " <heidis@...>

> The average woman/man though, has to deal with a lot more pressure, and

> what I'm hearing is that people have pretty much given up on " the home

> cooked meal " . I mean, I can put some beans on to boil and go back to work

> -- my office is next to the kitchen -- but how does one fight traffic at

5,

> get home by 6, then cook a dinner? Even a packaged dinner is difficult.

The

> whole " normal American life " seems seriously skewed to me.

Ah...the joys of raw-foodism! For me, dinner consists of a piece of meat

heated to body temperature in the toaster oven followed by several

alternating spoons of butter and honey. It probably doesn't taste as good as

what you cook, but it sure is convenient.

Berg

[Guest guest]

At 01:37 AM 4/3/2002 -0800, you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----

>From: " Heidi Schuppenhauer " <heidis@...>

>

> > The average woman/man though, has to deal with a lot more pressure, and

> > what I'm hearing is that people have pretty much given up on " the home

> > cooked meal " . I mean, I can put some beans on to boil and go back to work

> > -- my office is next to the kitchen -- but how does one fight traffic at

>5,

> > get home by 6, then cook a dinner? Even a packaged dinner is difficult.

>The

> > whole " normal American life " seems seriously skewed to me.

>

>Ah...the joys of raw-foodism! For me, dinner consists of a piece of meat

>heated to body temperature in the toaster oven followed by several

>alternating spoons of butter and honey. It probably doesn't taste as good as

>what you cook, but it sure is convenient.

>

> Berg

Ah ... the joys of cooking for yourself! :-) I'm guessing you don't have

kids or a spouse. In the good ol' days my dinner consisted of reheated

tacos in the toaster oven (I'd make them up in batches) or big salads. No,

given a choice and no one else to please my diet would probably be similar,

and really, really simple. Kids complicate things a lot though: I had no

idea ... and really, it isn't the cooking that takes the time, it's the

cleanup (esp. with no garbage disposal and doing recycling) -- THAT part

I'm slowly training others to help with. I think it's up to 3 loads of

dishes a day, if you can believe it.

-- Heidi