New Mum and Baby Gifts - No More Flowers Please!
By: Becky Pearce, New Little Person
Flowers, flowers and more flowers. If you know someone who has just had a baby, or who is about to give birth you can bet this is what they’ll be getting a lot of right about now! Now, I love flowers as much as anyone, but honestly, after the birth of my little girl our living room looked like a florists and the bedroom like some kind of shrine.
But what else do you get for the new family? Common advice is to get something practical, but I find that most mums-to-be spend the last half of their pregnancy researching and buying all of the essentials. And to be honest do you really want to be the one buying a pack of nappy wipes and some paper maternity knickers.
So what are the other choices? Recent research (amongst recent new mums I know) revealed the following top new baby gift criteria.
1) Something useful – babies bring with them enough “necessary” stuff so we don’t need any unnecessary stuff – keep those cow shaped baby bottles out of our sight!
2) Something beautiful – okay so we want the world. But is it really asking too much that something is functional as well as gorgeous?
3) Something a bit unusual – it is just great to get something that none of our other mummy friends have.
4) Something pampering – at the end of the day we’ve just given birth, our hormones are going mad, we haven’t had a proper nights sleep for months, we have a very sore bottom and on top of all this we have a new helpless little creature to bond with, feed, and generally do everything for. Please, please, please can we have something for us too! Preferably something that makes us feel a bit better.
5) Something that will save us some time. Any shortcut is a good shortcut when you have only had 4 hours sleep!
If all of the above leaves you with little more idea of what to buy, look online. A search for “unusual baby gifts”, or “beautiful and useful baby gifts” will bring up a wealth of sites, with some great new gift ideas such as baby clothes bouquets: gorgeous baby essentials like socks and babygros, carefully rolled to look like a bouquet of flowers. Perfect! No water required.
For a more pampering option try the “Earth Mama Angel Baby” range of organic, toxin free pampering goodies. Believe me if you buy any new mum “A little something for mama’s sore bottom”, a collection of soothing, and healing potions, you will have a friend for life.
Other alternatives include;
1) Some home cooked meals to put in the freezer. A casserole or curry that can be defrosted and quickly heated will save time and hassle for the hungry new mum or dad.
2) Home made babysitting vouchers – “to be used at any time”. Let the new family know that they’re not alone, and friends are on hand to help out.
3) Offer to go and help with the ironing, or the cleaning in those first few weeks. Practical help like this will enable the new mum to sit down and put her feet up in those precious moments when the new little person has finally gone down for a nap.
