As a parent, you nestle many roles under your umbrella of responsibility. Sometimes it can be somewhat daunting. You're chief mess-cleaner,  launderer, cook, nurse, chauffeur, playmate, storyteller, professional snuggler - and the list goes on.

As a parent or guardian, you do a lot to help your family thrive, like managing the balancing act between your full-time job and your family's needs.

And no one will argue that this balancing act is a stressful one - even without the added pressure of making sure your family gets the nutrition they need from multiple meals every day. 

With all you do each day inside and outside the home, many parents like you tell us they do not have the time to manage meal planning, shopping, and preparing fresh, wholesome food each day. 

Prioritizing whole-body nutrition becomes a daily guilt factor for some of our clients. Even the early morning (or late night) drill of pulling together lunches for you and your kids (a bagged salad and simple sandwiches, respectively) can feel like a circus act. 

This article is for those of you who are tired of stress-juggling a full schedule, work requests, family responsibilities, meals, and personal time (what's that?). Because the truth is, hiring a personal chef is a great way to alleviate an enormous daily pressure, regain lost time, and reclaim your home as a harbor of rest and connection for your family.

What other possibilities could taking advantage of personal chef services open up for your family?

Your Family Gets Back to a Solid Routine

Remember those blissful days when you put your kids to book with storytime? Get that half-hour back by hiring a personal chef to reduce your evening load and taking several tasks off your list and supporting your family while you ease into the new school year schedule. 

Children and families thrive on routine. Unfortunately, the past couple of years upended many of the patterns that anchored our days. When you allow a personal chef to prepare and deliver meals for your family, you ensure a few things:

• A nutritious, delicious, restaurant-quality meal waits for your family when you walk in the door each evening. 

• More time to focus on navigating your family's dynamic schedule, homework, and extracurricular activities. 

• A reliable daily structure, complete with some necessary "down" time for everyone to reconnect and recover for the next day.

Your Family Gets a More Relaxed Home

While many families worked from home and employed distance learning through the past two years, we've unintentionally invited more external stressors into our homes. 

Home, in turn, has lost its most crucial function - being a safe space to rest, connect and decompress together as a family. Personal chef services can help you create more space to connect, play and rest while you enjoy a meal together without the stress of planning, prepping, purchasing, and preparing. 

Imagine putting those beeping phones and laptops away, ignoring the notifications for even just a half-hour every evening - all while enjoying the 100% customized, nutrient-rich family dinner your personal chef delivered straight to your door earlier in the week.

Your Family Gets More "You" Time

The average American mother spends nearly an hour every day prepping and serving meals for her family. Add grocery shopping, pantry organizing, and kitchen cleaning to that list, and that number starts to soar. 

Whether you're cooking for two or ten, feeding a family is no small feat, and a personal chef can carry that responsibility for you. You know your time is valuable, and you shouldn't have to choose between evening storytime and prepping and preparing your family's meal. 

With personal chef services, you remove the age-old "What's for dinner?" dilemma that seems to haunt you every day of the workweek. When you hire a personal chef, you eliminate so many steps that steal brain calories, family time, and your personal care needs. Heck, you could even request some extra goodies for a date night with you and your significant other from time to time!

Your Family Gets What They Need

Most personal chefs know how to prepare meals for individuals, families, busy professionals, people on special diets, and especially families who don't have the time or interest in meal planning or cooking.

Or maybe the interest is there, but let's be honest - the time is not. Whatever your reason for hiring a personal chef, you can rest assured that your family will receive a meal plan customized to your unique dietary and nutritional needs. 

Your Family Gets More While Saving More

If you're thinking personal chef services sounds like a luxury, it is! But, who said luxury has to cost your family a small fortune? 

According to the USDA, families of four with a moderate budget can expect to spend upwards of $260 per week on groceries and meals - and that's just a baseline.

Suppose you're spending $300 weekly on groceries and meals to feed your crew. That comes to an average of $1,200 per month! And let's get real, how often do you find fresh food spoiled in your fridge at the month's end because you were too tired - or too busy - to pull together a meal when the workday ended? Evaluating how much you're spending (and potentially wasting) on groceries is a solid first step to discovering if you could reasonably hire a personal chef.

Trade the trusty drive-thru lane with a trusted personal chef, and your family's budget might breathe a sigh of relief. 

Your Family Can Enjoy Dinner - Together - Again

You know that no matter how hectic your schedule is, your family needs and craves nutritious meals to help fuel the go-go-go of the school year's pace. More than that, you crave a quality meal together.

When you hire a personal chef, you know you'll get a fully prepared, tasty, and approachable meal guaranteed to fulfill that craving while bringing your family closer together around the table. All you have to do at the end of the day is sit down with your family and ask, "Tell me about your day!"