New Delhi, May 10 -- Who carries a granite pan and a silicone spatula in their check-in luggage for a three-day trip? The same parent who tucks steel bowls and small spoons into cabin luggage, so that their primary-schoolgoing kids have familiar, child-sized cutlery to eat with during the journey. As parents of three children-one aged 9 and two 7-with three persistent and very varied appetites, my spouse and I plan snacks for holidays before we make schedules.

A few months ago, in a little apartment at a ski resort in Switzerland, while I sliced Swiss cheese and stirred homemade, pre-roasted, ready-to-cook buttery millet khichdi, I glanced at my phone. My spouse was walking through the cold aisle at the alpine town's supermarket, sending...