A Philadelphia couple is facing intense scrutiny and ridicule after requesting help from neighbors to navigate their exhausting experience as first-time parents.

The Fishtown residents, who expect their baby to arrive at the end of April, started a campaign on the support platform Meal Train seeking help with intricately planned meals over a 30-day-period, according to multiple reports.

"As the father-to-be, I’m teetering on a fence of emotions," wrote the man behind the account, which has since been deactivated. "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."

A Twitter user who received an alert about the campaign on the NextDoor app posted a thread about the couple's "ridiculous" demands on the Meal Train page, which the father-to-be called a "mental-health check-in train."

























Among the specific meals the couple requested were "Paleo breakfast egg muffins with thinly sliced cremini mushrooms, pork breakfast sausage and three tablespoons of melted and cooled ghee," instead of, you know, takeout or chicken cutlets — something easy. Not kale whole wheat pockets.

Twitter users, though sympathetic to the strains of infant care, could not believe the audacity of the couple's requests. Others lamented the fact that the app itself points to a lack of community and general neighborly support these days.

















The father-to-be was contacted by the New York Post and gave a bewildered response to the negativity.

“I apologize if it was taken the wrong way — and I’m frankly just very surprised and a little disheartened by … the response,” the local man said. “If they are not interested, then they don’t have to check that site or do anything. This is the world we live in.”



The last thing this couple probably needed a week before having a baby was an avalanche of criticism, but if it serves as a reality check and reminder to have gratitude for any help whatsoever, one day they may be able to laugh about this episode.

Odds are, some neighbor will make them those paleo breakfast egg muffins as a joke, anyway. They do sound pretty tasty.