This paper aims to form a hypothesis about factors that affect the dietary lives in mother-to-child households by qualitatively analyzing information obtained from face-to-face interviews about the current daily lives in these households and the dietary lives experienced by the mothers in their childhood. We conducted semi-structured interviews ranging from one and a half to two and a half hours long with eight mothers from mother-to-child households living in the Hanshin region, all of whom were either introduced directly by NPO organizations or by other interviewed mothers. Although all participants were experiencing economic hardships in their daily lives, their educational attainment was high and their childhood dietary life was good. Since they were trying to provide their children with well-balanced meals at regular times, their children generally enjoyed a favorable dietary life. However, almost all of the participants who had to work to support their families in addition to undertaking various domestic duties on their own suffered from mental instability and chronic fatigue as a result of objectively limited time, along with negative experiences-such as divorce and harassment from ex-husbands-and anxiety about the future. In addition, they felt strongly that their time is limited subjectively due to mental instability, poor physical conditions, insufficient family support, and/or objectively limited time. In the case of mental instability and/or poor physical conditions, it can be difficult for individuals to perform domestic duties, such as cooking and shopping, which can temporarily aggravate the dietary intake of mothers themselves as well as their children. Therefore, emergency support measures, such as social safety nets for mother-to-child households, should be strengthened to counteract these negative effects of mental instability and/or poor physical conditions in daily life.