It is ironic that food companies have exploited and subverted the link between food and motherhood. The idea that food is to be trusted implicitly because it is provided by our mothers, who would never put anything on the table which would harm us. By providing food which is quicker and easier, they have allowed women to dispense with another 'duty' which tied them to the home. The price being that you didn't ask whether your family's health was the cost.

Now you are as likely to see a mother examining the ingredients of a food product as you are seeing her make a meal from scratch. Maybe that is an overstatement, but mothers (and fathers) have reasserted their control over their child's diet in a way which remains within the system of mass-produced food.

Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.

Despite the fact that most of us now work, there's (manufactured?) pressure to do all the things our mothers used to as well.

So...the friendly cake mix manufacturer comes to our rescue...Add water, stir, become a domestic goddess.

When my children were smaller, I confess to having bought biscuit kits, keeping the Thomas the Tank Engine/dinosaur cookie cutter, and throwing the biscuit mix away.  It seemed more of a waste to spend time making something horrible.

But...my mother baked everything herself, and I learned from her. Not everybody did. "Proper" cookery lessons have only just been reintroduced to UK schools.

Unfortunately, cookery lessons in UK schools are funded by the parents providing the ingredients.  My daughter is doing cookery at the moment, and estimates that, in any given week, only about half of her class will take part.  Usually the same half.

It's a problem.  It can be really, really expensive to provide the ingredients, because supermarkets don't sell 50g of beansprouts, one stick of celery, half a pepper, four baby corn, six mange-tout or a tablespoon of soy sauce.  I estimated that her vegetable stir fry would have cost £10-£12 from a standing start. Leaving a fridge full of leftover ingredients, but that presupposes the parents know what to do with them.

Coincidentally, tomorrow, she's making cake  :)