so, he'd make things like pasta quite regularly, those little mini-pizzas you put on english muffins, etc. he made a lot of tacos, too. & chicken burgers - he liked to bbq
i spent a lot of time reheating food when nobody was home, granted, but it was mostly food that he cooked.
my mom, on the other hand, couldn't be bothered to pack me a lunch, which is something i had to do for myself from the first day i went to school. you could maybe talk her into making eggs once in a while, if you were willing to listen to her yell at you. i actually watched her spit on my plate before she gave it to me, once.
there was a stepfather in there for a few years, and he cooked, so i found myself fed more often than not. i don't want to pretend i was malnourished; it was no thanks to my mother, but i did find ways to eat. i wasn't a starving child.
....but, i have almost no recollection of her ever doing anything in a provider role. like, at all. i did the cleaning - starting at, like, seven.
when my grandmother came over, she liked to pick raspberries out in the back, which was always a pleasant experience. so, i'd go for walks in the woods and stuff.
but, i'm getting a point across - families don't look like they did in the 50s, and a policy designed around the assumption that they do is backwards and tone deaf. child care policies need to reflect reality as it exists, not be reflective of out of date gender stereotypes as they exist in some backwards conservative alter-reality.