This article comments on how most quick meal choices for parents are considered unhealthy, from macaroni and cheese to frozen dinners. This article takes a realistic stance that parents are only capable of so much, and it is okay to serve macaroni and cheese, just not every day.
In the 1980s, when many of today’s young parents were growing up, your mom or dad could fix macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for a healthy meal. In fact, the school cafeteria also served such a menu, and some cafeterias still do. If you needed a fruit or vegetable, your mom just added a healthy spoonful of applesauce. Meal planning for working parents used to be simple. Nowadays, macaroni and cheese is not wholesome because enriched macaroni noodles are bad (too many carbs) and the cheese is artificial. It seems like everything is bad for us, leaving busy parents to struggle for quick meal solutions.

The food manufacturing industry temporarily solved this dilemma. It has been more than a decade now since entire meals (like penne pasta with chicken and vegetables in a cheese sauce) became available in a family-size frozen bag. Now parents are judged for giving their kids prepared meals (packaged either frozen or dry) because they are full of sodium and preservatives.

Are you tired of people judging you for feeding your child a frozen dinner or stopping at the drive-through after a long day? Perhaps soccer practice didn’t end until 8:30 and your kids are starving. It is time to give yourself a break. Parents like you face too many societal expectations. You are not like Jessica Biel in a recent magazine photo returning from the farmer’s market with a canvas bag of fresh herbs and vegetables. You are a full-time, working parent, maybe a college student, and maybe a caretaker of your parents. Maybe you also run a home business on the Internet. Whatever your responsibilities, there is no way you can keep up with all good parenting habits.

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