First Time Parents Request Friends Provide Gourmet Meals And Do Chores

A young couple request friends and neighbours provide them with meals and do their housework after the birth of their new baby.

The couple put a request on “giving” website Meal Train and listed 30 diet-specific recipes. They added tha if those could not be provided, asked for neighbours to perform chores such as washing their dishes or walking their dog.

“As the father-to-be, I’m teetering on a fence of emotions,” the dad-to-be wrote on Meal Train, though the post has since been deleted.

“One of the things I’m most afraid of is not getting a great deal of sleep and as a result not being in the best frame of mind to offer my wife the support she needs to recover from the child-birthing process.

“That’s why I’m putting together this ‘Meal-Train’ or ‘Mental-health check-in train’ or ‘Do you need any help today train,’“ he continued.

“A meal would be awesome. If you feel comfortable reaching out before you arrive to see if we might need anything else – that’d be even more awesome.”

Gourmet Meals and Paleo Muffins

Included in their list of requests were their favourite meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, including paleo breakfast egg muffins with thinly sliced cremini mushrooms, chocolate peanut butter energy balls and lamb meatball stew with orzo.

“If we could use some food but prefer no distractions, I’ll put a big white cooler in our side yard,” the dad wrote.

Out Of Touch

While the posting has been deleted, one neighbour, Jack Jokinen shared screenshots to Twitter.

“I think it’s way too much and completely out of touch,” Jokinen told the New York Post.

“Maybe there’s some bigger issue that we don’t know about, like a health issue, but in those situations you put that [information] in … it seems like the husband is unprepared and his primary concern is his sleep. There are a lot of ways to make meals very quickly.”

The parents-to-be received quite some backlash as you can imagine.

“I apologize if it was taken the wrong way – and I’m frankly just very surprised and a little disheartened by … the response,” the dad-to-be who says the post was mainly for friends and family, told the Post.

meal train

What do you think? Good idea or totally ridiculous?

Share your comments below

60 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 07 Jan 2024
    8:00 pm
Im amazed they have any friends

- - mom111059 said
  - 06 Jan 2021
    10:12 pm
Really??? Strange but true story I think. Perhaps it was a joke

- - mom112217 said
  - 03 Jan 2021
    2:50 pm
He cannot be serious! It seems over the top!

- - mom101628 said
  - 02 Jan 2021
    11:17 pm
Never needed this sort of help with any of my kids, even after the demise of my first husband. Just so amazed at what I see these days.

- - mom169700 said
  - 02 Jan 2021
    2:31 pm
Receiving without Asking would have been better.

- - mom466923 said
  - 01 Jan 2021
    8:40 am
I have 3 kids and having the first one is definitely the hardest. But this is just ridiculous ????‍♀️

- - snazzy007 said
  - 29 Dec 2020
    3:38 pm
Can’t believe this , what have we come to

- - P&M'smum said
  - 29 Dec 2020
    8:00 am
This is funny, makes me wonder how families managed and thrived before all these things were available..

- - mom62624 said
  - 17 Dec 2020
    2:25 pm
This was way too much and over the top.

- - mom343701 said
  - 13 Dec 2020
    3:28 pm
this one made me laugh…ha ha I wish

- - Frankiielot said
  - 10 Dec 2020
    8:32 pm
Wow… another over the top request story.
I honestly don’t get these people and their demands. I’d be happy to receive any help or gifts. Not everyone is as fortunate to have people offer help or give gifts. They should just be grateful that they were able to conceive and have a roof over their head which is more than what homeless or less fortunate people have.

- - shanika said
  - 09 Dec 2020
    12:45 pm
I think helping new parents is fine.But this is too much.

- - rovermum said
  - 09 Dec 2020
    9:07 am
This made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. What a sense of entitlement! Suck it up and take care of your own family.

- - Blessed said
  - 09 Dec 2020
    6:55 am
Maybe that is normal for his family

- - BellaB said
  - 08 Dec 2020
    7:09 pm
This has been going around for a while – they’ve probably got six kids by now! And hopefully they’ve made their expectations more reasonable.

- - tessie said
  - 08 Dec 2020
    7:07 pm
I’d have no problems helping with some of the housework and I wouldn’t mind making a meal or 2 but you shouldn’t ask for specifics. If they don’t like what I’d serve then that is their choice.

- - mom460689 said
  - 08 Dec 2020
    5:29 pm
I would be happy to make a meal or do chores for a friend who had a baby.

- - Amanda Holland said
  - 08 Dec 2020
    10:03 am
I think the gesture of someone bringing food is awesome, when it’s not asked for. Especially depending on how the birth went. I had a real rough third birth which took me weeks to recover from due to lose of blood. The school that the older two went to were kind enough to drop around homemade soup and sausage rolls which came in very handy

- - Ellen said
  - 08 Dec 2020
    8:47 am
Not something I would ask for ! But I did receive a meal a day for a week organised by friends and it was lovely ! I was well able to cook myself and do the wash and chores in the house.

- - anna213795 said
  - 08 Dec 2020
    6:42 am
Newsflash: they are not the only couple in the world to have a baby! Everyone has to cope with these early days and sleepless nights. If anyone wants to bring a meal over it should be gratefully accepted not demanded
- mom462929 replied
  
  08 Dec 2020 , 12:24 pm
  Great points. Totally agree with you on this.