My mother, who grew up during the Depression, got up early and made breakfast for my father every morning. After my father had finished his eggs and bacon or eggs and sausage and toast, plus fresh orange juice, he left for work.
After my father left, the children sat down for hot cereal and toast and juice. My mother would also poach an egg for us if one of us wanted to put it on top of our toast. Our hot cereal alternated between steel cut oatmeal and cream of wheat.
On the weekends, we all ate breakfast together, with the substitution of pancakes or French toast for the cereal. We also had half grapefruits instead of orange juice sometimes. We were a family of nine.
This is how we ate our breakfast every single morning. Nobody every grabbed toast and said they were late. The girls had to clear the table and wash up afterward. We had no dishwasher.
You had a stay-at-home mother right? Family of 9 for one thing, but I think if the mother had a job too, then the breakfast routine would get shortened up a bit.
People might have expected this in the 70's, not so much in the 90's or today.
Yes, she was a SAHM for the first 16 years of her marriage. When child #7 entered Kindergarten, she was off on her bicycle to find a part-time job. (She had no car.)
After 5-6 years with the company, she made it to a full-time position. She still made the traditional breakfast for the family in the mornings, but we older girls (children #1 and #2) made dinner for everyone in the usual way, in her place.
Possibly June Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver. Could be before that, but she was the first one to come to mind. That stereotypical housewife that cooked and cleaned while wearing heels
Every morning we have bacon, sausage, toast, and eggs. My daughter and middle child love cooking (eldest is in college, 17, 14) and so they do it.
Free breakfast…I guess…?
I think it came from cereal commercials. They always said, "Part of this complete breakfast." and showed a bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice, bacon, eggs, pancake and fruit.
This is something you do for guests or on holidays or weekends. If me and my brother are over at my parents house for a holiday they'll often make a breakfast spread. My aunt would also do this when we came over to her house. It's often more a time issue than a money issue. Pancake mix, eggs, and toast are very cheap. It's the prep and clean up that makes it unrealistic to make for middle class family on an average weekday.
I can agree with this. But I think it caught on for a reason. This kind of thing might happen somewhere but most folks' reality is nothing like this. But *a lot* of people *feel* like this every morning.
It's used like that in Ordinary People where the mother (Mary Tyler Moore) makes her son (Timothy Hutton) his favorite breakfast of French toast before school and he says he's not hungry. She's shown with an angry frown shoving it down the garbage disposal. It's part of the building tension between mother and son.
Yeah, it's some kind of storytelling device. It's a setting to show the beginning of the day. I don't think there's anything particularly cultural to it.
This is part of the semi-myth of the 1950s as a golden age, when mothers were stay at home housewives. Look at shows like Leave it to Beaver.
We still have this sometimes in my house, but only a few times a year.
I'm sure it's in plenty of movies, but I remember seeing it in shitty shows in the '80s. Long time. I think it started as a "look how busy and modern this family is! No sit-down formal breakfast for them, no sir!" kind of signalling.
Only time we would have a big formal breakfast like that was Easter Sunday. Otherwise weekdays was cereal or like a pop tart before school. Weekends might be eggs/toast/bacon or maybe pancakes (but not every weekend, it very well may have been cereal again).
Part of this trope involves the old ideal of the "stay at home mother" who spend her entire day cooking, cleaning, shopping, paying bills, and taking care of the household (that, ideally, has 3+ children, a dog and a cat, etc.) In the traditional image, the mom gets up just early enough to make a big breakfast (which, let's be honest, isn't THAT hard if you have the time - none of the things you name are difficult or time consuming to make) and then Dad and the kids go off to their days and Mom spends the rest of the morning doing the dishes and laundry etc.
Up until perhaps the 50s this was not an unusual arrangement for a middle class household. It got a LOT tougher in the 60s; by the 70s, most of the moms were working too, so the idea of making breakfast from scratch for 5 people kind of went out the window.
This is actually accurate in my house (except the running out/busy part). I get up every morning and spend my time making breakfast and lunches while the other three (Dad and kids) get ready. They eat and in a flurry - they leave... and I'm left with dishes, but peach and quiet and my coffee.
I know my family wasn't normal. We didn't have pancakes, but I grew up eating eggs, bacon or sausage, toast, and hot cereal like grits or oatmeal every weekday from 1st grade until I graduated high school. And yes, my poor mom got up early so she could get dressed and get breakfast on the table by 6:30. She kept doing that even after she went back to work when I was 12. I'm old so this was the '50s and '60s. To this day I still eat that kind of hot breakfast. I was grown before I realized some people eat just cereal in the mornings.
For stay at home moms, with a bunch of kids of all ages, that was common. Especially for kids who were slackers that over slept, etc. and were late for their bus or carpool.
When I grew up, it was that way, the lady who carpooled with my mom would honk and I'd have to run out the door right then and there. Likewise when it was my mom's turn to pick up the other lady's kid, we would drive to her house and beep the horn and she'd come out.
This was common in the past, to save money and time. The other moms could stay with their babies who weren't in school yet. It alleviated pressure.
I was born in the early 80s and after my parents divorced when I was 2 my mother and I moved in her parents so there was always someone to watch me while she was working.
My grandmother woke up and cooked breakfast for everyone 7 days a week. M-F it was bacon, eggs and toast. Coffee, Milk and OJ to drink and fruit. Saturday was pancakes and sausage. Sunday was biscuits and gravy, sausage and eggs.
She did this all the way up until the last few months before she died even though it was just her and my mother living at home after 2008.
So I never found it odd that the TV mom made breakfast for everyone. I found it odd nobody would eat it. Even if you were running late you would still eat breakfast.
Breakfasts like that are mostly a weekend or holiday brunch thing. A lot of people just have coffee in the morning with something simple like a banana. Eggs are relatively common because they are easy to make and affordable, but pancakes and bacon are more time consuming.
Growing up my Mom would make me breakfast sandwiches in the morning that I could eat on the school bus. These days I food prep my breakfasts so I can heat it up and eat it in 5 minutes if necessary while still starting the day with something healthy and filling.
> I'm curious where this began, was this ever a thing?
Sleeping in, being late, and skipping breakfast? I think it's always a thing.
> Is this kind of breakfast spread in anyway realistic for even the middle class in the US.
Sure. Pancakes/Waffles, Cereal, Bread, Butter and Eggs are all cheap as fuck. Bacon's "expensive"; but not so much you can't have it every week (just probably not every day). Supplement with Sausage (which is fairly cheap).
> Also have you or anyone you know actually seen this happen irl?
My grandmother more or less did that for most of my life growing up, but she didn't work. I'd have breakfast at her place before school a lot; I think as women entered the work force more and more it really died off.
You need time to make all that stuff; and you have to get ready for work yourself; breakfast becomes an afterthought, or comes from the microwave 9/10 times.
The TV versions are often exaggerated in size.
At big family gatherings, I do this. If I have houseguests on a weekend, the breakfast I serve is straight out of a movie. Sausage, Bacon, Biscuits & Gravy, Fruit, OJ, lots of coffee and possibly pancakes or, more likely, some sort of pastry.
We don't even eat breakfast on weekdays.
I think it’s a writer’s way of introducing family dynamics and also setting up the upcoming conflict (“Isn’t this the day of the big class election?” says Mom.) It’s really overdone and pretty unrealistic but they can’t seem to let it go.
Just to mention something nobody else did... our house looks like this sometimes. Not because we are making big elaborate spreads, but because we have a lot of people/children spanning a wide range of ages and taste. I'm having scrambled eggs with no carbs, wife likes sunny side up with toast, one kid likes bagels, one likes toast, one likes cereal, one likes frozen waffles... most like bacon and two kids like sausage. Take this and sprinkle some Hollywood tropes on it... stay at home mom, hard working husband, angsty teen, etc and you get this exaggerated version.
My grandparents (born in the 1920s) had a very traditional marriage, and she definitely got up every morning and did that. Maybe not with that much variety, but it was expected by my grandfather that she would be up to make eggs and bacon, ot something similar, every morning.
My dad’s mom used to do this. My parents both joked about when they first got married and he assumed my mom would do this. She made it clear that he was welcome to cook it himself if he wanted.
My dad made breakfast for me every day. When I was a teen and moved to the basement he’d use the intercom to ask me what I wanted. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles, whatever I wanted. Also my dad is the best.
Those breakfasts can exist for some people on special occasions. I remember my mom really going all out for breakfast like that about once ever year or two. But it was always for a special occasion of some sort, and no one ran out with a piece of toast saying they were in a hurry.
As a cooking Dad of two (now-grown) children, on your birthday you get bacon and waffles with strawberries for breakfast usually. And I often make pancakes and bacon on lazy Sunday mornings. But not generally while anyone is rushing out the door to school or work.
I am at least reaping the benefits of teaching my kids to cook sometimes! My daughter made from-scratch biscuits and sausage gravy a few months ago. I love that, it's even better if I don't have to make the biscuits!
Growing up, my parents would always make breakfast on the weekends.
During the week, we could choose to wake up early enough to eat before school (cereal, eggos, microwaveable sandwiches, etc.), get to school early enough to eat there, or go hungry.
Growing up in the 70’s my mother made us a hot breakfast every day during the school year. My favorite was chipped beef on toast. Or, strangely, tomato soup and grilled cheese. These were so good on a cold New England morning.
I always took it to be shorthand for "this teenager comes from a loving family but they're too busy with friendship drama/comedic scrapes/saving the world [delete as genre-appropriate] to appreciate it."
That kind of spread was normal for my family growing up. We weren’t rich or anything, just middle class.
I think it was more common back in the day, especially in certain regions or cultures.
In the days of the house wife it was possible. Eggs and Bacon cook fast. Pancakes can be made by mix by just adding water and also cook fast. The kid can get his own cereal and the toaster and coffee maker are pretty automatic. Even before automatic coffee makers it is pretty easy as the eggs and bacon can cook at the same time while brewing on the stove. She would get up before husband and kids to start the day. Kids would hopefully be at the point where they can dress themselves. Even better if the school bus will take them and she does not need to get the youngest to daycare before heading to work. My grandmother could do this when I was a kid and unable to cook but she was not running out the door to work at the time.
With a working woman it really isn't as likely as she need to be out the door too and this is a bit much to do in the morning and get out the door, drop the kid at daycare, drop off or make sure the young ones got on the school bus and still get to work on time looking sane. For her the pancakes will be a weekend thing(esp. the ones made by hand) but other things that need less attention can be made. Frozen waffles(toaster\\oven) or Frozen pancakes(microwave\\oven\\toaster oven) can be used. Some coffeemakers are timed and can be set up the night before to go on at a certain time. Canned or frozen biscuits can cook in the oven or toaster oven while she does something else. Microwaves make fast work of oatmeal and grits. Rice cookers can likewise handle those too and for a larger family a small slow cooker can make them overnight. Not to mention that they can cook on the stovetop pretty quick.
Basically an American breakfast could be:
eggs, bacon and toast
cold cereal with bacon
pancake eggs and bacon.
So it is not as extreme as it seems.
It’s a trope, but I get up at 0500 to workout and I’ll make a family breakfast when I get done. It might not be super elaborate but we’ll have some sausage or bacon, eggs, fruit and a baked good. Two of my sons are old enough that they get up to workout with me, and they help out. My wife is FT and so am I, but I’m remote. So she spends like an hour getting ready, so it’s what I do during that hour where I’m already up, and not really ready to get cracking at work but also don’t just want to sit there…
Its just a trope to show characters in a rush or showing the character who made the breakfast is under appreciated or ignored. In real life large breakfasts are usually reserved for weekends (if then) and no way someone would not at least pack up some to go if they were late. My mom once made me bacon, eggs and texas toast when I was still living at home. I wound up late for work and while I was getting ready she heated up the eggs with a bit of cheese slapped it on the toast with the bacon and a dash of hot sauce, cut it in half and put it in a container. I ate it on the way to work.
That kind of huge breakfast is very occasionally made by American families, but it's usually reserved for special events or days where you're expecting to stay in and enjoy the meal for a fair while, potentially with a lot of guests (think Christmas morning or Easter or a special family visit over the weekend). The point of the mom character making the over the top breakfast that would normally only be made on holidays is to show that this character is doting and supportive and puts in a lot of work for her family, and the huge breakfast is just an easy visual shorthand on screen, because Americans would see that and know that the huge breakfast takes a lot of effort. The kids and husband rushing through it can usually have a few different connotations. If it's that they're running late (especially with child characters), it's generally film shorthand to show that the character is messy and a poor planner, as they brush off a good breakfast and their mom's efforts because they're not planning enough to get up early to both have breakfast and get to school on time. Combined with costuming and other tropes, this is usually one part of many in a film characterizing teenage characters in a film as chaotic, messy, procrastinating, and occasionally rebellious. If it's a husband rushing out the door, it's usually movie shorthand to clue the audience in that the husband character is dismissive to or thoughtless of his wife, as he's either brushing off her efforts because he doesn't like her or he's so wrapped up in his own events in the story that he doesn't notice his wife's work. If the story focuses on the male character as the focal point, this usually is the starting point of a story where a guy needs to learn to be more thoughtful and attentive to people in his life, and the early movie breakfast shows how his initial carelessness affects those around him. If it's a movie centered around the woman actually making the food, this scene is usually part of her gradually growing apart from the male character as she's disregarded.
This kind of breakfast spread is realistic on rare occasions, and it would be extremely rude by most people's standards to dash out unless it was an emergency. There's usually no reason to in real life anyways, since you'd really only make a massive breakfast on a day you expect to have off with you and your loved ones.
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