What to buy the #royalbaby: Don’t buy her flowers

I don’t think I’ve made any secrecy of my like of Kate Middleton. We’re the same age (3 days apart) and she comes from a village near the town where I grew up. I feel some kind of affinity towards her, which is clearly ridiculous. It shouldn’t come as any surprise therefore that I spent a fair bit of time glued to an app called Periscope at the weekend, watching the #royalbaby story unfold. (I like Max Foster of CNN by the way – find him here).

I’ll come back to my thoughts on Kate and that photo and parenting another time. My pressing question today is what do you buy a new mum on the birth of her baby? Especially, when, like Kate, she’s probably got all the baby kit already, particularly if the baby is a second child. Several of my friends have had babies recently and although I do eventually send something for the baby in due course, after the birth, in my mind, the present is for mum. Everyone else spoils the baby; I would have loved it had someone bring a present for me.

So, I’ve made an effort to give my friends nice things – scarves, nice toiletries, that kind of thing. Wouldn’t it be handy though, if you could order them from one place, have them nicely packaged and delivered. As easy as flowers, but in all honesty, probably more welcome. Steph had the same idea and she set up Don’t Buy Her Flowers. 

The premise is simple – flowers are nice, but the average mum receives loads of flowers. (I did, and they’re lovely, but you kind of want them one at a time, not all at once). These packages that Steph has put together mean you can easily give a lovely treat, which doesn’t have to be used or even dealt with straight away. I imagine you eat the chocolate pretty sharpish though… You can even add Cook vouchers to the parcel; a sort of modern equivalent of taking round a home cooked meal. Bonus; they can choose what they actually want to eat, and you don’t have to worry about getting your oven dish back.

Each parcel comes beautifully wrapped. I tested the service, and the parcel was delivered promptly to my chosen new mum and she texted me to say that it made her day and was “just what I needed”. I chose the magazine and the scarf and Steph did the rest. Between us, we created an excellent present!

 

Steph also writes a blog called Sisterhood (and all that) which is worth a read.

Don’t Buy Her Flowers prices normally start from £21. Steph is having some family time this week so all orders made Monday to Thursday will receive a £4 discount and be dispatched Saturday 16th May. I wasn’t paid for this post, but I was offered a package to review which I had sent to a friend with a new baby.