Couple expecting first baby ask neighbors to do their chores and provide meals

The internet is mocking a couple who asked their neighbors, friends, and family to provide diet-specific meals for them after the birth of their first child. (Photo: Meal Train)
The internet is mocking a couple who asked their neighbors, friends and family members to provide diet-specific meals for them after the birth of their first child. (Photo: Meal Train)

A recent post from a Philadelphia couple shared on Meal Train, a "giving" website, has drawn ire for their outlandish requests, including asking neighbors to provide them with meals and to do their chores after the birth of their first-born child.

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While it isn't unusual for first-time parents to get a little extra help from family, friends and neighbors, Jim Burns and his wife, Alex, requested 30 diet-specific recipes, and if those could not be provided, asked for neighbors 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,” Jim Burns 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.”

Included in their list of requests were their favorite 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,” Burns wrote.

While the posting has been deleted, one neighbor, 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, who are expecting their child to arrive on April 29, were widely mocked on social media.

“I apologize if it was taken the wrong way — and I’m frankly just very surprised and a little disheartened by … the response,” Burns, who says the post was mainly for friends and family, told the Post. “If they are not interested, then they don’t have to check that site or do anything. This is the world we live in.”

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