I am 65 and have two adorable grandsons, one almost 4 years old the other just turned 1 year old. I am 120 pounds overweight and I get very winded easily plus have mild arthritis in the knees but otherwise pretty healthy. I baby sit about a couple of days a week while my son is at work and DIL is on maternity leave. The older one goes to daycare. I don’t get paid which I don’t mind at all. I work a few evenings a week from home. The problem is the state of there home. It’s very messy. The kitchen is tiny. Both kitchen sinks are unusable because they are are filled to the brim with dirty dishes. The tiny counter is crammed with dirty cutting board, dirty cutlery dishes leftover takeout food containers sharp kitchen knives opened boxes of cereal etc. The stove top is also cluttered. There are two or three bags of garbage hanging from the kitchen cupboard knobs. There is stuff stacked up in front of the microwave. No dish towel in sight. The living room is cluttered with last nights dirty dinner dishes, half full cups of coffee, half full cans of fizzy water, the occasional dirty diaper, ( they eat off the coffee table) no room for a proper table. The tiny living room floor is scattered with toys, the living room also has two laundry baskets full of clean unsorted clothes that have been there for weeks. The bathroom is actually not too bad. The boys bedrooms are not too bad. The parents bedroom is a pigsty. Sorry for the long list but this is what I face when I babysit. Everything is made more difficult and unpleasant because of the utter chaos and clutter. I have to keep my mouth shut because DIL gets upset if I say a word. She goes into a sulk and texts my son at work which stresses him out. My son is the type to walk on egg shells so won’t say anything. That disgusting term ‘happy wife, happy life’ is his motto. He works a hard physical job. She is on maternity leave and is addicted to her phone. Sits and watches TikTok videos for a good part of the day. I play with the baby. She loves her boys and is a good mum she cuddles and feeds them well and is firm but fair. But she is a pretty hands off mum when it comes too interacting with them. That’s why I baby sit so I can play with them and chat with them. I love that part. How she manages to cook is a mystery but she will whip up some tasty dinners a few nights a week but they also order delivery food very often. They are always broke too. But the mess really gets me down. I will be baby sitting a lot more soon because she returns to work next month. I can only imagine things will be more messy.
Is there such a thing as delicious ready meals?