I’m a bit joking on the Need Answer Fast thing, although my husband has been asking me and I don’t really have an answer for him.
I have a fifteen-month-old daughter and pretty much have everything I need, so I can’t think of what I want, gift-wise. Here are things I already have:
iPhone
a gift certificate to a spa/salon that I’ve had since Christmas with no time to use
laptop
All the clothes and shoes I could possibly need, and I don’t wear jewelry
A gym membership with a personal trainer
A bunch of bath stuff (BB&B outlet was having a massive sale and I got $40 worth of stuff, each individual item costing no more than $3)
Every kitchen gadget I want except a Sous Vide Supreme, which is a bit outside of my husband’s price range for this particular gift, and we probably won’t buy until after we move anyway
an xBox 360, with various games, mostly RPGs (currently playing, and loving, Dragon Age)
My big hobbies are cooking and console RPGs, but I can’t think of anything I really want along those lines. I’m also a bit of a gadget freak. I’m hoping that maybe someone can think of something I don’t know exists that I would enjoy. Oh, and my husband is currently recovering from surgery and can’t drive, so if it’s available on Amazon Prime, even better.
Flowers? A plant? A lilac bush? A card? I’m not much for mother’s day as I, too, have (well, almost) everything I need/want. A meal out at the Chinese buffet, Red Lobster, or the much-loathed Olive Garden is what I REALLY want.
Do you buy your husband lotsa stuff for Father’s Day? I only ask because the man of the house here wants/needs/expects major huzzas and stacks of loot as if Father’s Day is a mini-Christmas. Weeks ahead of time he hints for DVDs, CDs, books. Rather sad, really. I have to make careful note of the wish list, and I have to go out and buy the stuff (though it’s technically from our child). I don’t - I can’t - roll that way. Dinner out and a card from the CHILD is as much as I feel is called for. Someday I hope to get a card and a phone call from the child, but she doesn’t seem in a hurry to go out on her own.
I had a friend who had a collection of suncatchers, they were in every window in her house. She told me confidentially that while she liked a couple of pretty ones in the beginning, the collection kind of snowballed as word spread that “hey, mom likes suncatchers!” and so every Mother’s Day (and birthday and Christmas) she is gifted with suncatchers. So maybe if you like Hummel figurines, or thimbles, or birds/frogs/dragonflies, this would be an opportunity to start and add to a collection…
Do you have a GPS for your car? If not, a TomTom would be a nice gift. Hell, I wish someone would give ME one.
How about a nice leather tote for your laptop or work papers. I found a gorgeous red one for my daughter last year – she is a clinical case worker who is in her car visiting clients more than she is in her office.
Books? A nice cookbook or that Ted Kennedy biography, True Compass.
I didn’t see perfume on your list so … perfume. My daughter gets me that every time and I love it. Every squirt reminds me of how wonderful she is, I feel like I’m dousing myself with her. Added bonus, I’ve used it up by the next year of course and I’m ready for more.
Do you have a rotary multitool (Dremel, etc.)? Those can be handy. Or, speaking of multitools, get a Leatherman or Gerber multitool. I have a Micra on my keychain, and it’s a very handy item to have when you’re out running around. Or even at home. And, of course, these things come in larger sizes as well.
If you like cooking, then you need an herb garden, and possibly an edible flower garden as well.
If you don’t like those ideas, then go with Godiva chocolates.
You want your husband to help the kid make you a card. The little one draws a picture, Daddy does the writing. Simple, inexpensive, doesn’t add to clutter, and something you can stick in a box and keep forever.
I always get the usual pajamas, flowers, potted plants, slippers, etc. I’ve been to my share of crowded brunches. And I’m appreciative of their thoughtfulness. Yeah, that’s nice…
But if they had asked me, what I would REALLY love would be…
A day to myself. ALL to myself.
Get the husband and kids OUT OF THE HOUSE all day, including dinnertime, so I can do whatever I want to do. Sleep late, read the paper, have a peaceful lunch, take a nap, go for a walk in the neighborhood, etc. without any disturbances. I don’t have to fix dinner, wipe noses, referee arguments, pick up toys…I can just relax and have some of that mythical “me” time.
DB, if you have a fifteen-month-old, I’m sure you could use some time to yourself and a nap (you said yourself that you havent’ even had time to use your spa certificate). Tell hubby to take the baby to his mom’s house overnight (I’m sure she’d LOVE to see the baby on Mother’s Day!), and maybe you’ll have time to go to the spa, or at least read a good book.
Here you go. Sometimes my wife just wants the house to herself. So the kiddo and I head off to a double feature, grab some dinner, go play, do whatever, just get the hell out of the house for 8 hours. Ask for that. It’s not unreasonable.
Yes, a day to one’s self! I forgot that one, but it’s an excellent idea. People forget the strain a mom is under, 24/7 (especially a new mom) - always listening, always on call. Housework, cooking, chauffuering, always noise and distraction and someone wanting something. A day alone, of peace and quiet, and nothing that needs doing for someone else, is a rare and valuable thing for most moms. Like being let off the leash. (Of course, I sometimes used to go out to a restaurant (vegetarian, Thai, tearoom? - yes! McDonalds, all-you-can-eat, Pizza Hut? - not this time, ha!) with my own mom on mother’s day, but we had fun, just the two of us, and often combined it with a movie, or a just-for-fun shopping trip. No picking up Hanes underwear, disposable diapers, or looking for the elusive wool Gold Toe socks for me n’ mom!)
Alternatively, consider that since you are not your husband’s mother, he shouldn’t be getting you anything. It’s not Wife’s Day. A few years from now he can help the little one get something for HER mother (you). Now, he should just be getting something for HIS mother.
He asked me, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting this. FTR, not only has he gotten something for his mother, I did too. But I think it’s completely appropriate for a man to get a little something for the mother of his child on Mother’s Day, and I’d be shocked if most of the married fathers on the SDMB didn’t also do the same.
I like the day to myself idea. I especially need it after the last few weeks. He went out of town for five days, then six days after he came back, he got hernia surgery and I am now taking care of him as well as the kiddo and the whole house.
Oh yeah - time, time, time. That’s the greatest gift any mother of a toddler can be given, IMHO. Even better if you can keep your day off entirely secret from anyone other than your partner, so that well meaning friends and family don’t find you things to do. Oh, the joy of sleeping in (or not), having a silent meal, watching grown-up tv in the daylight, reading a magazine in peace, going to the bathroom alone… aaaaah!
Mother’s Day is March here and in fact this year my friend and I were reflecting on the curiousity that we’d both chosen to celebrate the joy that is motherhood by insisting that we had minimal contact with our child that day! Love her to pieces, but everyone needs a day off sometimes.