Most people who read my crap here know how I feel about those people who are, shall I say, just a LITTLE bit spoiled and pampered.

I always knew the rich and beautiful lot of this world had their own cooks and nannies and manservants and all that. SO when I read this, I thought: Wow. It’s not about the rich anymore really. It’s about the spoiled and lazy!
I have some seeeering thoughts about this.

In a large, elegant kitchen in Norton, Carol D’Espinosa darts back and forth from the sink to the stove as she peels shrimp for shrimp burgers and keeps an eye on a boiling pot of from-scratch chicken soup that is filling the room with the smell of garlic and onion. In between, she whips up macaroni and cheese — not from a box.

It is only 10 a.m. The kitchen is not hers. And she will not eat one morsel of her creations.

Welcome to the world of the modern meal, where everyone still loves to eat well but not everybody has time to cook. As life gets increasingly complicated, with longer commutes taking up personal time and sedentary jobs and unhealthy fast foods combining to clog arteries, more area residents are turning to personal chefs like D’Espinosa to ensure their families get tasty, wholesome meals.

Ahh yes the modern family. Who is too busy to even sit down together for a meal. Nevermind eating together- thats been history for a while now. The actual meals- no one has time to cook for their family? I say: Rearrange your priorities people. Make the time.

They are also more likely to pick up gourmet food from places that prepare custom entrees, or multitask in commercial kitchens that enable them to socialize with friends while assembling as many as 12 dishes at a time that they can pack up and take away without having to wash a single pot or pan. With the shopping, the prep work, and the thinking already done for them, they can easily — and quickly — toss the assembled dishes in a skillet or in the oven at home, whenever they want.

Christine Dimino, who regularly hires D’Espinosa to cook in her Norton home , is among the modern homemakers.

“A lot of people might consider it a luxury, but when you have four kids and two jobs, and life in general, sometimes it’s a necessity,” said Dimino , who initially used D’Espinosa’s Norton-based Made From Scratch services for a party.

Modern homemaker? What the hell does she do around the house? Doesn’t sound like much to me. I’m sick of hearing about that excuse: Life in General. What life? It’s passing right by these stupid people and they don’t even know it. Meals- cooking, eating together is one of LIFE’s better moments.

She said she has continued to use D’Espinosa because she is pressed for time. Dimino, who has lost 50 pounds that she wants to keep off, works full time from home for a weight-loss company, runs a home decor party business, and has four children ages 1, 3, 5, and 7 . Her husband commutes 75 miles each way to and from his job in Andover.

In the Dimino household, and in many homes across the region, the age-old question of “What’s for dinner?” is increasingly being met with “Who has time?” according to personal chefs associations, culinary school officials, and consumer trend watchers.

SHE WORKS FROM HOME??? And can’t manage to find an hour a day to cook???? File this under…I don’t know what to call it, the LAZY FILES or something. WHO HAS TIME? Those who make the time. Those who like to cook. Those who know their family comes before their damn work. He husband- now he has an excuse. What a commute that is.

Today’s parents, who are more likely to hold down a job than not, are tired. Several area communities are among the state’s top 20 with the longest average commutes, according to a study based on US Census data by the think tank Mass Inc. Parents are frantically chauffering children from dance recitals to soccer games. And health-concious eaters trying to lose weight or treat a medical condition are frustrated at making meals so demandingly specialized that even Martha Stewart might throw in her spatula.

“There is no question about this: People don’t want to cook,” said Harry Balzer , vice president of the NPD Group , a New York marketing research firm that tracks how Americans eat. “Cooking is a job. It’s not play. If it is play, then it would be fun and we would do it more often. . . . We don’t want to cook. We don’t want to shop. We don’t want to clean up. The only thing we want to do is eat.”

LAZY, SPOILED, LAZY, SPOILED and LAZY that’s all this is. Yes, cooking is a job. It’s also an art and if one puts a little effort into it, most will actually enjoy preparing their family’s meals. Involve the kids with cooking and cleaning up after too- they love this time for interaction, conversation and learning. No wonder families don’t really KNOW each other anymore.

Similarly, Hanover resident Rosemary Economou and her husband decided to make their lives easier by using personal chef Darlene Calcagno of Cuisine by Darlene in Hanover.

“I’m not working but I’m a stay-at-home mom, and between driving my kids to school and all the things mothers have to do, it alleviates the decision of what to have for dinner, the shopping, and the time to make it,” Economou said.

I’ve heard it all NOW. A stay at home Mom…who doesn’t cook for her family. WTF??? Between all that driving, you poor lady. (rolling my eyes).

Don’t give me this bulloney about working and raising children and being tired and all that. I raised 3 daughters – who were pretty close in ages; I worked full time and my work isn’t sedetary by any means! I woke up at 4am, dragged myself off to work and came home just as the kids were coming home from school…I cooked, cleaned, did laundry, did the school events things- all the things parents do. And bedtime for me was always after midnight. I found time to cook. And we found time to sit down together to eat. My husband worked second shift so he wasn’t home for dinner with us. That made this time all the more important to me- families need time when they can be together, talk, laugh, joke around- to be FAMILY.
If I can do it anyone can.