My mother and husband were both with me for 5 days. As I've said before, I had a pretty easy recovery from my open surgery (I could sleep in my bed the first night home, just needed about 30 pillows) but I was the nap queen. What my helpers did was take care of the kids - I have a 2 1/2 year old, who was as good as she could be, but I couldn't do anything with her since I couldn't lift her or bend over to tie shoes very well.
After the first week, I started driving, and though I still needed help with lifting things (and opening windows - ouch - that was a painful lesson) I was pretty self-sufficient after that.
Really - once I was off pain meds (day 6) I was feeling pretty good.
