One of the more popular home care services is meal preparation for your elderly parents. You’ve been doing the cooking on your own. You’re not sure it’s necessary. Take a closer look at why meal preparation is so helpful.

Your Cooking Skills May Not Be Great

Some people struggle to cook meals. If you can’t cook or get by with the bare minimum, it’s hard to prepare meals that fit your parents’ nutritional needs. A box service like Blue Apron may help, but it’s expensive and still requires you to have some skills in the kitchen. If you can’t cook, hiring caregivers to cook is a good alternative.

Keeping Up With Meals for Everyone is Tiring

You have to really love cooking if you’re going to keep up with daily meals for at least one household. You have to get to the store, plan the menu, and prepare meals for your parents and possibly your own children, too.

Family caregivers who don’t live with their parents often cook meals for one household and go home at the end of the day to cook a meal at their own home. There’s grocery shopping for two households and then time in two kitchens. It’s exhausting. It can also make someone who does enjoy cooking really start to hate it.

It Frees Up Time for Other Tasks

When you’re not having to worry about preparing three daily meals and snacks, you have time to do other things. Instead of spending time chopping ingredients, you can use that time to fit in dusting or cleaning the fridge.

You could also use that extra time for self-care. Instead of worrying about doing another chore, use that 30 minutes to sit down and start reading a book. Go for a walk or sit down and meditate. Self-care is necessary if you want to avoid extra stress and caregiver burnout.

Your Mom and Dad May Get Tired of Monotony

When you’re cooking for two households, it’s easy to get into a rut where you’re cooking the same meals regularly. You’ve gotten hooked on quick and easy one pot meals. You’ve made baked rice with chicken breasts twice this week and your parents are sick of it.

They may appreciate having someone else take over the cooking. They want variety and you’re no longer offering it. Home care aides help with meals and snack preparation. They can sit down and ask your parents what they’d like to have and come up with a menu plan that that home care provider makes for them.

Are you ready to learn more? Call our home care agency to talk about the cost and frequency for meal preparation services. Make sure you mention any dietary restrictions, such as low-sugar or low-sodium meals, when you talk to a home care specialist.

For Home Care Services in Germantown TN, please contact the caring staff at Personal Care Services MidSouth today!