Water Is Fine Spinoff

[Skippy918]

Growing up, it was rare outside of pizza, and Chinese takeout. McDonald’s was once in a blue moon. very rarely sit down restaurants. With our kids, we eat out a couple times a week.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We did every now and then, but it wasn't even a weekly thing. I think it is much healthier to keep eating out to a minimum.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Growing up, how often did your family eat in restaurants? And how about now?

We’d go out to eat practically every Sunday and many Fridays as well. Sometimes other days too depending on my father’s work schedule.

Sundays after church we’d have brunch at my grandmother’s, then visit my other grandmother, then usually go for a drive or to one of the few places that were open on Sundays. Then out for dinner and return to brunch GM’s house to watch Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. Other relatives did the same; some only for brunch, others only in the evening.

For whatever reasons, my mother’s sister would visit in the afternoon when nobody else was around.

It was a rare Sunday that we were home between 10am to 9pm.

These days DH and I eat dinner in restaurants about 3 times a month.

Wow! You must have been comfortable financially to eat out 2+ a week!

We ate out maybe once a month if that. It was rare.

Same with my own family. Ordered in Chinese food and it was almost $100. Can’t afford to do very often. McDonald’s with 2 teens is $50.

 

[kymom99]

Very rarely. There wasn’t money for that. Dad butchered his own cows and grew a garden so we ate well at home. Occasionally when mom took us shopping we would have lunch out. In later years my parents ate out quite a bit because they could better afford it.

 

[RedAngie]

Very, very rarely we would go to Roy Rogers. That was always a treat, getting a Double-R-Bar burger like my Mom.

Roy Rogers was my favorite fast food place as a teen/young adult. There are very few remaining. You could make a free “salad” from the Fixin’s Bar.

 

[RedAngie]

Wow! You must have been comfortable financially to eat out 2+ a week!

We ate out maybe once a month if that. It was rare.

Same with my own family. Ordered in Chinese food and it was almost $100. Can’t afford to do very often. McDonald’s with 2 teens is $50.

I suppose we were. But most of our meals out were at diners or other relatively inexpensive places. Maybe twice a year we’d go to a fancy place.

I remember one time in the late 1960s I thought my father would kill me when I ordered the $3.25 veal cutlet.

 

[slo]

When I was a kid we would sometimes go out to eat after church on Sundays for lunch.
We’d also go out for special occasions.

Now, it totally depends on the time of year.
We go out for birthdays and our anniversary.
Once our DD19 is in season starting 2/18 and goes through May, we’ll be traveling to watch her play almost every weekend, so we’ll be in a restaurant a lot (we’re getting to know her college town really well). When we travel to Florida in March my DH is having us stay somewhere with a kitchen so we don’t have to eat out every day.
Summertime we’ll barely eat out.
Autumntime DD will have a fall season and we’ll be traveling every weekend again to watch her play so we’ll be at restaurants again.
Wintertime we’ll barely be in restaurants.

Truth be told….I’m not a big fan of eating out. Very rarely do I leave a restaurant happy with what I ordered and I hate how expensive eating out has become. I’m not the best cook, but I really like what I make, so I prefer to stay home and cook.

 

[Disneylover99]

My parents enjoyed dining out at fancy, upscale restaurants in the 70’s and I always tagged along. It was mostly dark, smoky steakhouses. I loved it! We usually went once or twice a month. Good times.

Now we only dine out if it’s a birthday celebration or if we go somewhere on vacation. And we’ll choose somewhere reasonably priced. It’s just too expensive to dine out. I don’t enjoy the bill. Lol.

 

[nene0182]

Very rarely. We lived 30-40 mins from “town” so it just wasn’t something we did regularly. Now I live in the middle of the city and we eat out maybe once every other month if that.

 

[1420Elexismc]

We would occasionally go to papa ginos or our local pizza place. There was a New York Steak house in our mall we would go to for special occasions. A fancier Chinese restaurant sometimes. It wasn't super often, but we didn't do much else with all of us so spread out in age and my parents' work schedules so it was our "thing" to do as a family

 

[PollyannaMom]

I'm not really sure how often we went when I was a little kid, but it wasn't especially rare. I remember going to fancier places once in a while, or going out for pizza occasionally. By the time I was a senior in high school, both my parents were working (across the street from each other in our very small town) and you could leave for lunch if your study hall fell in the right time slot, so I probably met them downtown for lunch a couple of times a month.

As an adult, it's been very "phase-y" - periods when we've gone out once a week and periods when we've hardly gone out at all. (And for a while, we were more likely to go out for breakfast than dinner.) Lately, we're probably averaging closer to once a week. Sometimes we go out, sometimes we order take-out.

 

[Colleen27]

Growing up, we went out or got takeout and took it to my grandparents' house on most Sundays. Nothing fancy, usually Bonanza/Ponderosa or Friendly's. Bill Knapp's on birthdays. Or KFC for Grandma, because that was her junk food weakness; she liked it even better than fried chicken from sit-down restaurants.

Now, we go in streaks. Sometimes I'm good about meal planning and keeping on top of dinners and we don't go out for weeks unless we're away from home at meal time, and sometimes it just gets away from me and we get takeout or go out to the local pub more often than I intend just because dinner time creeps up with nothing quick on hand. We don't have many restaurant choices in our town so I try to limit our dining out simply because going out gets repetitive so quickly, but if I'm particularly busy during the day shopping and cooking tend to be among the first things to give.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We went out every so often not sure it was a routine thing. When I worked with my dad as a kid we'd usually go out for lunch though. His office for a long time was right next to a Wendy's so I went there a lot when we were working on the weekends or when I was out of school. There were a couple of fav places we'd go to more often than others.

As an adult we go out although I'd say we went out more before the pandemic than now. Most of our meals are at home mostly when we don't feel like cooking (which isn't too too often) or food might be picked up on the way home if we don't want to cook or need to save time (which isn't too too often but does happen). The thing we need to work on and have been is getting fast food for breakfast on the weekends. My husband doesn't like eggs it makes it hard to find breakfast items. We've been doing either biscuits and jelly, cinnamon rolls or pancakes and bacon but it's really easy to just get McDonald's or Burger King for breakfast..too easy.

My mother-in-law and step-father-in-law virtually every day for every meal they go out. That's way too much for my husband and I.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

We were a lower middle class family and didn’t go out to eat often. Maybe 4 times a year and usually just my Mom and me. I can’t recall my Dad ever going with us. We would get pizza or occasionally fast food a couple of times a month.

 

[tvguy]

Money was tight after my dad passed away when I was 9 in 1967 I don't recall how many times we ate at a restaurant, certainly not weekly. And it often was Sambos, or a chain like Happy Steak or Mr. Steak, or what was known as a smorgasbord at the time, just would be called a buffet now.
Now, we eat restaurant or take out food Friday and Saturday night. Although we were traveling this week so I have had 5 restaurant or take out meals since Tuesday.

 

[ronandannette]

There were no restaurants anywhere near where I grew up, but my Dad worked in town and he ate breakfast at a truck-stop with his buddies every week day. Going back to town to have dinner out took a special effort and my Mom wasn't big on it so it was pretty rare for them and they never took me with them. We'd eat out when we travelled or occasionally if we were in town for shopping or a medical appointment.

When I left home and moved to the big city, I marveled at the variety and quality of restaurants here and eating out became a very frequent thing when I was single. DH and I used to go out a few times a week early on, but when our DS outgrew the infant stage and it wasn't as easy to take him along, we gradually pulled way back on it as babysitting was hard to come by.

...Truth be told….I’m not a big fan of eating out. Very rarely do I leave a restaurant happy with what I ordered and I hate how expensive eating out has become. I’m not the best cook, but I really like what I make, so I prefer to stay home and cook.

At this point, I feel exactly like this. DH and I almost never eat out just for the sake of doing it anymore. We do enjoy to go to new and interesting places when we travel but most of the times we do it here at home now it's because we're celebrating or getting together with friends and the social aspect is far more important than the meal.

 

[Babs Johnson]

My family ate out just about every Friday night. Until the late 60s meat was prohibited for Catholics on Fridays and my mother hated cooking fish. We’d go out for seafood; crabs, shrimp, clams, or fried flounder, etc.

Even when the meat ban was lifted, my parents stuck with the fish on Fridays thing. I don’t know why, because they were never really more than lukewarm marginal Catholic.