Abdicating Goddessness

One thing you never seem to hear the perfect women on TV do (and yes, I'm sorry, I mean Nigella) is hear them abdicate their responsibilities. Certainly not the chefs among them anyway!

Well - in my humble of humblest opinions (which, by writing that is very not humble), I am all for it. I work full-time, my partner works from home. So lately I have been discovering the simple pleasure of asking him to sort something out for tea. No, it's not what I would do. No, it's not always made with the least amount of mess. But it's delicious, stress-free and comes with a lovely feeling of not having had to cook it when exhausted and shattered after a 1.5 hr commute.

So my challenge to you all out there, if you're reading this, is to ask for help. Get your man to make something (and if he doesn't know how, point him at the millions of recipe books littering your shelves and tell him its like a Haynes or pc manual for the kitchen) and just sit back and enjoy being looked after.

We spend a lot of time looking after other people. I am taking liberties there and assuming you, like me, put other people first. We are bombarded by products and adverts telling us we need to look after ourselves more (on top of everything else you're not doing perfectly, you're also neglecting yourself - what's up with that?!). So start with something easy. Give up those control reins for the kitchen. Let him cook for you once or twice a week. I guarantee you'll freak out for a week (I refuse to budge from my book in the lounge while he cooks, and make sure I have a large glass of something to help keep me calm), milk it for all its worth the week after, and then you might suddenly get an urge to cook something. And you'll love it. You won't begrudge it, hate it, or just "chuck something together". You'll actually love coming in, changing, putting on your apron and delighting in making something. And then you'll want him to cook again the next day :o)

Its okay to abdicate the throne and let someone else share the load. You haven't failed. You've started to accept you're human, imperfect and marvellous for it.