The real push presents
/I was driving the carpool to school today when the radio hosts started chatting about the new(ish) tradition of a husband giving a "push present" of fine jewelry to his wife when she has a baby. I don't think this was a thing when I was having babies in the nineties. Back then, I think the philosophy was that the push present was, well, your baby.
I'm all in favor of gifts and occasions, though, and the topic got me thinking. There are lovely showers and congratulations and gifts for new mothers and, really, that's great. But then it's a long trudge across the desert after that. No built-in present moments. No congratulations. And yet, it seems to me that there are plenty of moments ripe for thanking and gifting later in motherhood. For your consideration, a few currently thankless parenting moments that are ripe for gift giving, in celebration of a different kind of pushing:
-teaching your child to drive without perishing
- getting the college applications finally submitted
- finally getting your boys to aim better in the bathroom (and to clean up)
- getting the high-stakes school project completed
- pushing them to keep their arm or leg casts dry for six weeks in the summer
- dropping your child off at college
- getting your 12-year-old son to ask a girl to dance rather than sit it out
- sitting through a dozen years of music practicing and school concerts
- getting them through school and graduated
Okay, parents. What other tough, thankless moments could be candidates for push presents?
