Mothers’ Cooking: Perspectives of Givers and Takers

Abstract

The burden of malnutrition of children is a global challenge. Promoting mothers to prepare their own meals at home is indicated as an important strategy to prevent malnutrition and improve nutrition in children. Despite the fact that meals prepared by mothers are healthier, little is known about what cooking means in the Thai context. This descriptive qualitative research is intended to describe the perceptions and perspectives of mothers’ cooking among Thai mothers and school-age children. Descriptive qualitative research, using in-depth interviews with 10 mothers aged 31 to 80 years old and 10 school-age children aged 10 to 12 years old, was conducted. Participants were selected using purposive sampling from 10 sub-districts that are partners of the mothers’ cooking network project of Songkhla province. Data were analyzed using content analysis. The results provided by the mothers' and children's perspectives indicated that Thais perceived mothers’ cooking quite differently based on whether the perspective toward mothers is as the giver or whether the children addressed the perspective of the taker. For the giver, mothers’ cooking was defined in terms of the power of love, happiness time, feeling of self-worth, and mother’s role and responsibility. For the taker, mothers’ cooking was defined in terms of the best thing and the most delicious, family relationship, giving and sharing, and demonstration of love and care. Additionally, this study highlighted that the mother’s perception of cooking can be divided into 3 steps, namely, preparation, cooking and eating together. These findings may help in determining how public health programs can be improved and the role of mothers promoted within a healthy nutrition strategy. HIGHLIGHTS The provision of optimal nutrition during childhood is critical to good health, growth, and development “Mother's cooking” is still a common tradition in Thai culture and daily life, but little is known about Thai attitudes toward mothers’ food Cooking activities demonstrated the mothers’ love and transferred their wisdom to their children Eating meals as a family strengthened bonds and became a family rule or habit passed down from generation to generation