I worked full time while my kids were growing up, but I came home each day and cooked dinner. I did a lot of prep work the night before and sometimes my kids or husband would get it started. I was the last one home each day and they were waiting for dinner. LOL We could not afford to even bring take-out home. My kids are still thin in their 40's. They were both healthy eaters....loved vegetables and just generally ate healthy. By the time they were teens and had more access to fast food restaurants, they weren't really interested in it. Believe it or not, now that it's just me and DH, we eat out a lot rather than cook a meal for 2 people. Thus my weight gain! LOL

I haven't read all the responses but did want to chime in. When I eat at fast food restaurants I try to order a kids meal of whatever is available. While it sounds crazy the child size portion is usually more than enough for me to feel full. I may not get exactly what I want taste wise but I keep my portion in check and I save money to boot.

What's amazing to me is how much larger even single fruits and vegetables are now. The size of potatoes, bananas, apples, cucmbers etc is so much larger than before.

Also, I went to a fish market today, and my MIL bought a piece of fish for my FIL that was 1.67 pounds, I couldn't believe it! To my eye, it was enough for 4 people.

So even portion size for home cooking has gotten totally out of whack.

This totally, and they make it so much easier to choose the larger singles, too. Go to the grocery store and compare the bagged apples vs. the singles. The singles are humongous, obviously more fresh and are simply gorgeous and mouth watering, while the bagged apples are often small, bruised, and wimpy looking. And of course, the singles are almost $2.00 (with 1 apple already being half a pound or more, so $2 per apple), vs the bag of apples at $3-5.99 depending on the size bag you get. A lot of fresh fruit now adays is almost 2 servings in one, which is kinda ridiculous if you ask me. No wonder they tell you to only eat 2-3 pieces of fruit a day; when you consider the size of the fruit being sold, that's 4-6 servings which is the right amount, haha!

And chicken breasts! Im supposed to be eating about a 4 oz serving but all the chicken breasts are about eight ounces. Did they used to be that big???

Agreed! The breasts I buy from Sam's, a lot of them are at least 10 to 12 ounces! Once the BF asked why I was cutting it up into 4 pieces instead of 2 and was surprised when I told him the 12oz breast was actually about 4 servings.

Back in the 50's regardless if women were working they had to cook--there wasn't really that many sources for take out food. My mother worked a full time job--and always came home to cook dinner.