Mar 6

Mar 6 Slice of Life: Day 6 - A Hello Fresh! Stage of Life #SOL22 #TWTBlog

Five years ago, I wrote this post. Since then, we’ve transitioned from a Duraflame stage of life to a Hello, Fresh stage of life…

Our transition into what is frequently referred to as “empty nesting” was a bit bumpy with Covid. We never quite knew when our young adults could be coming back or for how long. We managed to gut it out and try to find a rhythm to our new lifestyle. With less on our plates and space in our schedules, Chris tried to find ways to be helpful. He shrank one too many items of my clothing when doing the laundry, didn’t completely get the concept of dusting, and managed to master only two dinner recipes. He would happily grocery shop if I made the list, take over the bills if I took the time to transfer everything over to him … somehow my list of to-dos was not getting shorter by him being helpful.

Now, as an educator, I completely understand and embrace the gradual release of responsibility, but let’s be honest, sometimes it is just easier to do it yourself. We continued to falter in finding a flow, ours steps often out of sync. His offers continued,

I could make dinner.

I could organize our family vacation.

I could buy Christmas presents.

Dinner seemed like one we give a try, again. If he could master two recipes, then he could learn a few more or I could eat a lot of Mediterranean tilapia and chicken parmesan. We gave it a go …

I chose the recipes.

I made the grocery list.

I wound up doing most of the cooking.

We were still in guided practice and transfer was not happening. I was not in the mood to create a micro-progression for cooking dinner so my husband could find a pathway to meeting or exceeding the standard.

Enter Hello Fresh!

It is basically Garanimals (hyperlink for those at a different life stage – you may want to know about this), for cooking.

Each week we choose the number of meals and the meals we want to eat. Every Monday the ingredients for these meals magically appear on our doorstep. Each evening, someone else walks my husband through every step of the pre-measured, pre-planned, highly scaffolded recipe. It even tells you which pots, pans, utensils, and oils you will need to have in your home for most recipes. We have been doing this for about six weeks and it is really working. Our grocery bill has gone down, we throw away less waste, the food is healthy, and I am no longer the scaffold. I’m sure there are other companies who do this, but for now, this is the one for us.

I think I’m learning a lot about cooking by doing this, Chris shares as he places our dinner on the table.

That’s great! The meals are good, I reply.

I think I could start using the ideas and do it by myself with regular recipes. I could … he begins.

I look up, turn to him, and hold my breath. He clearly does not understand what happens when you remove the scaffold too quickly. Should I choose to let him experience an authentic feedback loop so he can see where he really is in relation to the standard? Should I choose to let him decide? Is he ready for formative feedback?

You could … you certainly could, or you could just be okay with being in a Hello Fresh stage of life.

I throw the Duraflame log on the fire and head over to the table.