Gift Ideas

[Manxie]

Hi all:wave:

I am hoping for some ideas please. One of my friends is pregnant with twins. She is due in December and already has a DS who will be 2.5ish when the babies come.

I am looking for practical gift ideas/suggestions for our mothers group to give to her. I think we would have about $200.

I was thinking a voucher for a cleaning company to come in and do a spring clean for her ?before the babies after

or contact a nannying agency and seeing if they would provide credit vouchers for a nanny/mothers aide to come in and give her some help in the early weeks??

What do you think would be most useful or any other suggestions really appreciated.

I was also toying with the idea of suggesting we all cook a curry/stew etc for her freezer or is that a dumb idea?

She is a lovely mum who has not much support and stuggled with PND first time around so I would really like to give her something to help her out rather than us all spending $20 individually on clothes or toys

Many thanks

[jembelina]

I think they are all awesome ideas!!!!
I would LOVE to get the voucher for a spring clean!! As well as some homecooked meals - a friend of mine bought over a huge pot of yummy vegie soup when ds2 was born, it was by far the most helpful thing anyone did for us!!

[Manxie]

Thanks jembelina, anyone else???

[Manxie]

Bump!

[honeydew]

I think the cleaning vouchers are a GREAT idea!! Also if each mum in your mothers group cooked a dish that is freezable I'm sure she would appreciate it so much :yes:

[Tam-I-Am]

Yep I agree with the others - pay for a cleaner to come around once a week for as many weeks as you can afford it!

The meals in the freezer idea - that will be a godsend too!

[Dannielle]

The cleaning company is a great idea:thumbsup:

I had the best group of friends when I had my twins and they took turns bringing a whole dinner around for us every afternoon! They did it for 2 whole weeks but it worked out that they did it once each week. Honestly I have no idea what we would have eaten if they didn't do that for us. Most of the meals were just ready to eat. They were such lifesavers!!

You know what else might be good. But might sound a bit silly. A basket of food for when she gets home. Including things like milk, bread deli meat etc and fruit. I hated that when we got home DH had to leave me at home ahhh :eek: by myself with 2 babies and a 4 yr old to go and get what we needed. I have no idea what he ate while I was in hospital and DD1 was with grandma. (Probably take away every night)

[defaipe]

yep for sure. cleaning & cooking are the best ideas! that way she can just concentrate on her babies & little boy:yes:

[Manxie]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

Have a look here

http://www.bubhub.com.au/directory/listing.php?id=710

Do you think this would be better than cleaning services. I have never heard of these people but it sounds good. What do you think? Do you think it would be more of a hinderance than a help?? Its a shame that they only provide help over three weeks?

Danielle - did you know your friends were going to be bringing the meals over before you had the babies?

Would it work if I invited everyone over to mine a few weeks before she has bubs gives her the voucher for whatever and present her with an esky of meals that everyone has made? All ready to pop in her freezer?

Questions, questions sorry!

[Dannielle]

Hmmm, I have never heard of them before either. They sound pretty good. I guess it would depend on exactly how involved they are. And also on your friend. For me personally, I would prefer to have things like cooking, cleaning or washing done and be able to sort myself out in a routine.

Yeah, a few of my friends got together with me before the twins were born and basically said they would like to make us some meals for when I get home. They wanted to know if I minded!! Also they wanted me to let them know if we didn't like certain foods too. It wasn't until the 1st friend came the day I got home that she told me they were doing it for 2 weeks. (I thought it was going to be for 1 week)

Yeah, the esky of meals to put in the freezer would work.:thumbsup:

[Manxie]

Thanks Danielle. It seems like she could just tell them what she wanted them to do i.e. ironing, light cleaning, shopping, meal preparation etc and they will do it, whatever she wants really. I'd love it but its hard when its someone else!

Thats a good point about meal dislikes/like I am just worried that she will say she dosent want us to make anything out of embarrasment.

[Dannielle]

Yeah, it's hard to accept the help.

In my case I had a horror pregnancy and suffered from an enormous DVT in my leg (admitted to hospital a few times). So bad I was on crutches for a while and of course wearing thoses lovely stockings (thigh hight)during summer pregnant with twins.

So, they said look we have all been talking and want to do something special for you when the twins are born. We want to bring you dinners so that you can just concentrate on DD1, the twins and yourself when they are born. If you really don't want us to do it we wont but we really want to do this for you. Is that ok?

[Manxie]

Ha, Danielle I should have just pm'd you, lol!!

Thank you for all your help. I am going to get the girls around in a couple of weeks and offer up my ideas and see what everyone wants to do and how they think we should go about it.

[lukaelmo]

I love the cleaning idea... For about a month before Chuckie was born, and around 2 months after, we had a cleaning lass around once a week...

It was so lovely to have a beautiful clean house, I felt really proud, as though I were really keeping it together :laughing:.

I wish you were in my mother's group!!!

[Manxie]

:wave: Thanks lukaelmo

My sister gave me some money towards a cleaner when dd was born hence the idea. The best thing was she gave me lovely pounds sterling so I managed to stretch it out for four months and got the place cleaned fortnightly.

The thing I loved best was saying see you later I'm off for coffee while I left them to it!!!!:laughing: They were a lovely couple to and if I can ever get another bun in the oven I will be hinting strongly to big sis to hand over the lolly again:D