baby birth jewelry for the mommy...

[Trekkie]

Oh no, you totally didn't offend me. Honestly, that's virtually impossible these days. I just didn't want to clog up a thread about baby gifts with my own long rant about sovereignty. That really would have the potential to offend.

Well, for the sake of adding my ZAR0.02...

I can't wait for Wills to become king. We'll finally have someone with Stuart blood on the throne again!

 

[rosetta]

I also go around nodding to Circe.

 

[Dancing Fire]

I think it's a new tradition. I have 4 adult kids and I didn't get any presents! None of my friends did either. Boy do our husbands owe us!

nahhh...the young ladies here are just making excuses for more jewelry...

 

[suchende]

I think it's a new tradition. I have 4 adult kids and I didn't get any presents! None of my friends did either. Boy do our husbands owe us!

nahhh...the young ladies here are just making excuses for more jewelry...

New acid test for suitors... position on maternity gifts!

 

[Pandora II]

My father bought my mother a gift for each of their 4 children - and he's not the sort who would have been induced into buying anything because it was a trend or because of marketing pressure.

I have an antique OEC 3-stone ring as my Daisy bling - I call them Friday, Saturday and Sunday... I reckoned a 54 hour labour, forceps, intensive care and 5 blood transfusions deserved some kind of sparkly!

(I'm in the UK too and I know many people who give their wife a gift for having a baby - tends to be jewellery).

Should men get a gift... yes... when they start being pregnant, giving birth, having their nipples chewed raw and a body that never looks the same again!

 

[diamondringlover]

I think it is a good idea, I didnt get anything for either of our kids, both were c-sections, the 1st one he did get me roses, the 2nd one I got nothing.....heck I never even got a mother's ring....but I am hoping to amend that when I do a reset and it will happen mark my words.

 

[Dancing Fire]

daddy can get a gift when his penis squeezes out a baby.

can women give birth w/o any help?..

 

[suchende]

daddy can get a gift when his penis squeezes out a baby.

can women give birth w/o any help?..

oh and what a terrible BURDEN that "help" is on fathers...

 

[jstarfireb]

You know, threads like this are why I stay on PS. If it was just about the bling, dude, I get the Sotheby's auction catalogues, I get my fix. But threads about wearing big e-rings at work and the politics of upgrades and whether a failing economy affects public presentation? Count. Me. In. I think stuff like this says SO much about the narrative of women in contemporary culture.

As for what it says? I actually did a random Google of "push presents" a couple of weeks ago after seeing an acrimonious thread on a similar topic on another forum. It seems like there are three basic variants on responses.

1) The logical: this has been a tradition for generations that has only just acquired an obnoxious name.

2) What about the menz? In which our stalwart champions pursue justice and equality for all, despite the fact that childbirth, for a man, is sort of ... well, anatomically impossible. But it was really had to watch. Ergo, flat-screen! I kinda think this one grows out of the backlash to feminism and the vaguely wounded feelings some dudes have about the fact that after a lifetime of male privilege, they have to compete with female coworkers AND open the occasional door.

3) The consistent: the meme in which women, and usually American women, are grasping, greedy, materialistic, and wholly objectionable. They expect engagement rings! They have big weddings! McMansions! Shoe addictions! AND they want a reward for the most beautiful and selfless and natural act a woman can perform, that of bringing new life into the world! Heresy and abomination and obviously just what you can expect when you teach them all that fancy book-larnin'.

3A) Hallmark conspiracy. They've already talked society into Valentine's Day (actually, blame Chaucer); where will the madness end? Soon, women will expect presents for their daily bowel movement! Har, har, har.

Except for Numero Uno (which is rarely the popular choice), ugh.

Seriously, men and same-sex partners (from whom, I will note, I have never once heard a complaint): when the mother of your child has gone through the ordeal of birth, whether it be by squeezing something the size of a watermelon through an opening that's conservatively the size of a (small) lime or by having her torso sliced lengthwise like she's just had an encounter with Captain Hook, be nice to her. Bring her champagne and sushi and flowers in recovery, and if she's a 5-love-languages present person, buy a damned locket! If you know she'd prefer a day at a spa or a maid for a month or whatever, do that. Good gods, it's not rocket science.

Circe, I officially love you...can I be your same-sex partner?

...too bad I'm married and straight. Oh well.

 

[junebug17]

I never even heard of a push present until I came to PS! I think it's a nice idea though - a nice way to commemorate the birth of a child.

 

[iugurl]

I had never heard of a push present until PS. I don't think it is really a tradition, at least not in my area of the U.S. I guarantee if you surveyed all of the women here in Indiana, 90% would say a push present? what?

I can't imagine my DH or any of my friends really going for it. I can see a little something maybe. But not the $500-5000 that I have seen on here. I don't have kids so I look to my friends who have kids for experience. I guess most of my friends very rarely spend more than a thousand or two on jewelry normally, let alone when a child is born.

I can just imagine a couple of the husbands saying what!? You want me/us to spend $1000 MORE on a piece of jewelry when you convinced me we just HAD to have the $1000 crib instead of the $500, the $400 stroller instead of the safe $200 one, the new hardwood in the nursery etc. But... that is just my group of friends. We are not poor, but when a kid comes, it does change the lifestyle. Money can't be spent on the top-of-the-line baby stuff, new house stuff, and jewelry all at once.

I guess if a woman wants one, and her husband/boyfriend/whoever agrees, then sure why not? IMO, if money is tight, and money could be used better elsewhere, then it is NOT a necessity. Flowers, footrubs, massages, and other things can be just as nice.