Hello my inlaws both have aides all day 5 days a week. They are under the impression that they need to buy extra food for the aides to eat each day. Is this a thing or are they just being paranoid?
I did some Private Duty now and then back in the day. I was not really good at sitting around and often cooked for the family and we would all sit together and eat. Mostly with this one lady I took care of for a year. She lived with her husband and his elderly father so we got friendly and I would cook and do extra things to keep busy. She taught me some great old recipes.
Then we'd play penny poker after dinner or bingo before I went home :)
Others I mostly brought a bag lunch. I'd say it depends, they don't have to provide food and I've heard people complain that the help would eat waaay too much food, in some cases food would seemingly disappear from pantry or fridge :( If they actually cook then I think offering to join would be appropriate?
They cook regularly, so the cost of having to feed another adult 2 meals a day is spendy. I get that the inlaws want to be polite but they are complaining about the costs.
The problem I see now though is if they have been doing and now stop? What's spendy? You mean the aides are cooking, yes? At this point they might lose the aides. Who does the grocery shopping? who decides the menu? Maybe simpler meals and no prepackaged stuff that costs more?
The usual concept of aides 'cooking' is they warm up or make sandwiches not really cook. I did it as an RN because I was bored and enjoyed it but it certainly was not part of my job.
You make a good point. They have fed the aides, and it would/will be weird to just stop. One of the aides does cook some like put salmon in the air fryer sort of thing.
I would say if they feel they're spending too much for food maybe get on a budget. These days it's very hard to find good, dependable people you can trust. If they're happy with the aides don't rock the boat too much.