How long should you wait before allowing family to visit your new baby?

Question

My wife and I are discussing when it would be appropriate for our families to visit our first baby. We want some time to recover and establish a routine, but our families are eager to come sooner. Can anyone share their experiences with this? What is a reasonable amount of time to wait before family visits your new baby?

Answer 1

We were delighted to have both sets of parents visit while in the hospital, but of much greater value was having them stay for two weeks each, giving us some much needed support in that first month while we were learning our way.

Your parents are an excellent resource to help make your lives easier, they can babysit, provide their experience, go to the shops or cook meals for you, or just generally be an extra couple of pairs of hands.

Answer 2

Although it's been hinted at in some of the other answers, your main concern should be setting the expectations for anyone that comes to see you. No one should be "visiting" new parents, because visiting implies that you are the hosts and will care for them along with your baby. Friends and relatives should only "come to help" - anyone coming into your house should expect to cook, feed you, clean up for you, perhaps even make a shopping run. And for the record, "holding the baby" is not "helping". That is the mother's job, and everyone else's job is to do things for the mother.

If you can get your relatives to accept that message, you should not have to fear them coming over, and indeed they should be relieving more burden than they impose.