How common is it for Americans to make breakfast at home before heading out to work/school/whatever ?

34 comments

1. Breakfast on-the-go is a pretty common thing here. Usually coffee and something they can eat on their commute.

   Another significant portion of people make breakfast in the office and eat when they get there.

   Parents also will make sure their kids eat something, usually cereal or oatmeal – a quick prepared meal.

   The old 90s/00s “part of this complete breakfast” commercials are unrealistic though, since that’s basically a full meal with tons of dishes.

2. My wife makes her breakfast at home, then eats it in the car on her way to work.

   I make and eat my breakfast at home before getting the kid out of bed.

3. My kids have a pretty consistent breakfast routine that includes peanut butter toast and a fruit most days.

   I have black coffee once I am on the way to or after arriving at my job. I don’t really eat a breakfast most days (special occasions we do big breakfasts at home).

4. We usually make eat breakfast everyday. It was over 1-2 over easy eggs and 1-2 pieces of toast today. That’s pretty typical.

5. Very. I don’t make a full breakfast at home before I leave for work (like eggs, pancakes etc.) but I’ll eat yogurt and fruit and coffee.

6. I do it for my kids, not so much for me.

7. With kids it’s pretty common.

   Me personally, I get breakfast on the way to work.

   (Usually coffee, a croissant, and some OJ that I have mid morning.. speaking of which, I guess I’ll go have that OJ right now)

8. This is something that’s going to vary from family to family. I make breakfast for the family at home nearly all mornings.

9. We both eat breakfast at home- usually something quick and easy like toast or cereal or a baked good.

10. My wife and I don’t eat breakfast before work, but we do make breakfast for our kids before they go to school.

11. I always eat a bowl of cereal before leaving for work.

12. Fairly common, but it’s not going to be those big spreads like you see in American sitcoms. I usually just make the kids a bagel or a toast before school. I’ll do something a bit more involved like avocado toast for myself.

13. Largely depends on how early you leave for work. I start at 7:30 AM and it takes roughly 50-60 minutes to get there in the morning, so I’ll pretty much just have a bowl of cereal or (more commonly) stop by McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts on the way in. I vividly remember as a kid needing to be at school at 8 AM and that being “late” enough in the day for Mom to cook a fairly nice breakfast for us to somewhat casually enjoy before Dad would drive us to school.

14. If I have to leave the house before I can have my breakfast I’m not going to even act okay with it.

15. I always eat fruit, granola/milk, bread, nuts. Something like that before heading out for the day.

16. Very common. I’m about to make brekky!!

17. I’d guess it’s more common for families with kids, since they should be eating breakfast. For people my age, mid 20s, it’s pretty common to not eat breakfast or to just grab a granola bar or maybe some fruit. On occasion, maybe grabbing a burrito or something from a drive-thru.

18. Growing up, I would usually have something like cereal or a to-go breakfast before school. Now as an adult I’ll usually have a coffee with a bowl of fruit, granola, and Greek yogurt. If I find time on the weekends I’ll make a weeks worth of breakfast sandwiches and freeze them so I can just heat them up whenever I don’t want yogurt.

19. I do about half the time. Today I just had leftovers from sunday.

20. I make a full breakfast a few times a week. I work evening hours and my wife works remote during the day, so it’s a fun thing for me to do and we like eating together

21. I don’t eat breakfast at all and I know many people like me. Plenty of people who do eat breakfast at home are just having like, toast or a bagel or a bowl of cereal. Making bacon and eggs and pancakes is generally reserved for Sunday mornings or holidays.

22. For me, extremely common. I’m one that would be up an hour+ before I had to leave for work. Breakfast is easy and leisurely.

    Typical work morning; The coffee is already done and ready in the auto drip coffee maker. I would do stuff like have a load of laundry washed, about a 30+ minute cycle, make & eat breakfast, have some time finishing a coffee on the screen porch, toss the laundry in the dryer, and finally head off for the day.

    On days that I didn’t cook I would have some homemade big fat breakfast burritos in the freezer, think a bacon egg & cheese omelet in a big 10 inch tortilla. Just heat it and eat it.

23. I pretty much always eat before heading out for the day. I rotate meals. Sometimes it’s oatmeal, sometimes cold cereal, eggs and toast, egg tacos, leftovers…whatever.

24. The full breakfast you’re probably thinking about is normally reserved for the weekend when kids are off from school and parents don’t have to go to work. My mom would make breakfast every Sunday morning. Otherwise your morning breakfast would probably be cereal or toast or whatever is quick during the week.

25. Most people I know either make it at the office or skip breakfast entirely.

26. Never when going to the office, when I work from home, I make breakfast every day.

27. My SO makes breakfast for herself every morning, usually it’s something as simple as toast/bagel with her coffee, on the weekends maybe an egg sandwich.

    90% of the time my breakfast consists of a single cup of coffee.

    We don’t have children, if we did I can imagine it would be something very basic M-F (bowl of cereal/toast/eyes).

28. Back when I had a commute, I would eat breakfast at home most days, but “making” it? Depends on how loose your definition is. I’d eat leftovers or something prepackaged (maybe microwaved, maybe not). I certainly did not scramble up some eggs or anything like that. It was all I could do to get myself and the kids out the door on time as it was.

29. I always make breakfast first thing after waking up. My kids get served breakfast everyday: Oatmeal, cold cereal or baked goods during the week; pancakes on the weekends. I eat what they eat. Then I make a pot of tea for myself and pourover coffee for my wife.

30. If I make something the night before, I’ll take that with me and eat it at my desk if I’m working in my actual office. Like right now, I have several servings of tofu scramble and roasted veg for breakfasts this week that I can just grab. Sometimes I cut up fruit so I can just grab it in the morning. Otherwise, I get a coffee and breakfast sandwich on the way to the office. That $10 is worth the extra sleep I get from not having to wake up and cook as I do not do mornings well.

31. Coffee and water has been my breakfast for….uh…I can’t even remember the last time I got breakfast.

32. Very common here. This is a small town so there aren’t a lot of places to pick up food on the way to work, and the places that do exist are packed. Before work from home, my husband usually had cereal and coffee before he left. I would usually make a bagel and tea, which I would eat while I drove. The other option was to just not eat anything, which both of us did plenty of times.

33. All the time, every day the wife makes eggs, pancakes, bacon & sausage with an assortment of healthy fruits. I always just grab some toast on the way out, but it feels good knowing she puts in all that effort.

34. I don’t even eat breakfast anymore, really. I just grab a cookie before heading out.