Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gift and parents

Non-Baby Gifts for New Parents

LolaGeek — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:33:55 -0800

One of my best friends had a baby last night. I've got baby gifts, but what can I get (or do) for the new parents? This is my first really close friend to have a baby, so I've never been in this situation before. I have some gifts for the baby himself, but I'd really like to get something for the parents. New parents, what would you have appreciated receiving after the birth of your first child? I know this has been asked a couple times before, but it doesn't seem to have come up in the past couple of years, and the answers given to these questions also seem to include a lot of baby items. I really want to get something for the parents.

I was thinking of food, of course, and then I thought maybe I could come over and cook for them (and clean up!), rather than just bring a tray of something frozen, but would you have wanted someone messing around in your kitchen at that point? Or would you just be glad for the free food and free time? I've also seen recommendations of coming over to clean or do laundry - would that be appreciated, or would you want people to stay out of your stuff? And while I don't mind doing something as a gift, is there an actual physical item you loved or would have loved receiving?

Oh, and I'm sure they're inundated with family right now, so I'm not even expecting to see them for at least a few days.

Another delivery of love

fijiwriter — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:17:37 -0800

Looking for an outstanding, but deliverable, gift in Germantown, Tenn., area for new parents. Mrs. Writer's cousin and his wife just had their first baby, and are due home next week. They've been through a lot lately, and we wanted to order and have something special delivered, other than the token flowers or plants or cookie bouquet, etc.

So, for you fine Germantown and Memphis folks, what is a nice gift to have delivered from a local store/company? I'd like to steer away from the usual "new baby" realm, if at all possible.

What's hot in Hangul?

ignignokt — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:29:39 -0800

Korean Book Gift Filter: What Korean books (meaning books written in Hangul) should I get for my parents? I figured I'd swing by the Korean bookstore tomorrow to get gifts for the folks. (Yeah, I know it's late, but they're not really that big on Christmas, so I wasn't all that .)

Unfortunately, while I can read Korean phonetically, I don't know the language well enough to be able to tell if a book would be interesting to them or not. So, I was hoping someone could suggest something. If not, I'll probably just pick books that are translations of originally English books that I know something about.

They're not super picky. They both enjoy popular fiction. My dad leans slightly toward books about history and religion, and my mom toward biographies and stories of personal struggle.

So what's good?

what can I do for my parents' 25th anniversary?

esolo — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:29:05 -0800

my parents have their 25th wedding anniversary this year. What can I do for them that is special yet inexpensive (I'm a graduate student)?

Imagine if you spent the rest of your life married to the guy one seat over on your next airplane flight...

MsMolly — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:09:12 -0800

My parents met on a flight to Hawaii a little more than 35 years ago. Help me make their next anniversary really special. This question brought to mind something I've been thinking about for quite a while. My parents have one of the best "meet cute" stories I know. My Mom was on her way to grad school for a Master's in Pacific Islands history, my father was headed to Hong Kong for his job as an accountant. They were seated next to each other on PanAm's first commercial flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii. They hit it off, exchanged addresses, wrote to each other for a year, and then finally got to spend a couple of weeks together in person in Hawaii, which ended with a marriage proposal. 35 years, 2 kids, and at least 20 moves later they're still together, and I'd love to give them a special anniversary present.

They're probably going to Hawaii next year for a class reunion for my Mom's Master's program. She's already talked to a few of her classmates/friends who stood up with them at their wedding to try to get them there, but I'd like to make it even bigger. Because my parents got married in Hawaii, no one from either of their Midwestern families was able to be there except for a cousin of my Mom's whose Navy ship happened to be in port.

I know I can just go ahead and invite my aunts and uncles, but trips to Hawaii haven't gotten any cheaper, and I'd love to find a way to get them there that all of them could afford. My first thought was to see if I could get the airline my parents met on to offer some freebies because the story would be such good publicity for them, but PanAm went out of business many years ago, and doesn't seem to have been bought up by any major airline. I could probably talk to someone at her school's alumni program about making some mention of their wedding during the reunion festivites, but beyond that I'm stumped.

What else can y'all think of?

25th Anniversary Gift?

elvissa — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:59:53 -0800

My future in-laws are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this month. What can my fiancee, his 3 siblings and I get them that will make their day? He works for a Catholic College and she is a church organist. They are quite religious, but liberal and enjoy spending time with their family. He travels quite a bit for work, so they prefer to spend time together at home rather than travel together. He is an excellent Italian cook and she is a wonderful baker. They have a home with a large deck and a very nice backyard.

Previous successful gifts have included: a large pasta bowl for family meals; a picture frame filled with family photos; a chimenea; tons of books.

We are an extremely close family and this is a very special occasion and I would love to find them something really special, but we probably should have started looking a month ago.

Should we get our parents a gift for our wedding?

geeky — Tue, 16 May 2006 06:54:51 -0800

Should we get our parents a gift for our wedding? I'm getting married in September, and my parents are paying for the wedding. His parents have contributed as well. We would like to show both sets of parents our appreciation, but I'm not sure if a gift is the best way to do that. Neither of us has a lot of money - I'm way underpaid, he's still in school. In fact, there's a good chance we'll end up borrowing money from our parents in the first year after the wedding. I was originally thinking about gift certificates to a nice restaurant for the parents, but it seems kind of stupid given that we'll end up borrowing money from them. And would we get both sets of parents the same dollar amount, even though my parents have paid for the majority of the wedding?

Would a heartfelt card be a better way to thank them? Any other suggestions?