My Plan for My Mom After the Baby Comes

In my experience, some people are cleaners and some people are cookers.

For instance, it drives my mom crazy when her house is messy; when she comes to my house, all she wants to do is clean. Yet, when it comes to cooking and eating, she really is not that fussy. She will happily eat a rotation of the same 3 to 5 Weight Watchers meals every night for dinner. Even when I was little and she did cook, it was always the same main meals.

I, on the other hand, am a cooker. It bothers me a little when our house is messy, but unlike my mom, I don’t feel immense satisfaction in cleaning the walls or heating vents. I just don’t care that much. I do, however, love to cook. I enjoy trying new recipes. Last summer I made a binder of our 90 favorite recipes; I thought that would be enough, but I still continue to want to cook new things.

I am only two short weeks away from delivery now, and rather than clean the house top to bottom, my nesting instinct seems to be coming in the form of cooking. I am trying to fill our freezer with yummy foods that will feed us for 6 to 8 weeks after the baby is born so we don’t have to rely on processed frozen food or take out.

Don’t get me wrong, I am noticing things around the house that need to be cleaned, but it is just that I don’t have much energy after taking care of my little girl all day and trying to stock the freezer in addition to getting my eBay business up-to-date while she naps.

My mom will be here for almost two weeks after the baby is born (huge thanks, mom!), and I know she will get antsy. I also know she will want to clean my apartment. This can sometimes lead to frustration on my part, because she seems to fixate on things I don’t care about like trying to get all the dirt build-up off of our ancient radiator in the bathroom. (It is impossible; she tries it every visit, and every visit she tries anew.) So, this time, I am making a list of the things I would like to clean but have not had time to do. That will keep her busy (and, strangely, happy) and I will end up with not only a freezer full of food, but a clean house.