Since Mother’s Day is nearly here, I decided to share some ideas for unique gifts for moms. These are ideas for expecting moms, new moms, moms with six children…any moms! As long as they have a sense of humor and appreciate a gift that’s not-so-ordinary. Some of these ideas would also be great for dads. (You’re welcome, everyone.) So use this Mother’s Day gift guide to get to shopping for this weekend or bookmark this page for future baby showers and mom birthdays.
Parenting Humor Books
Every mom (and dad) needs a good laugh. Karen Alpert’s newest book “I Want My Epidural Back” is hilarious. If you’re buying a gift for a “cool” mom who already owns “Go the F*ck to Sleep,” then she’ll piss her pants when she reads “Nobody Likes a Cockblock” (and her husband will love it too, maybe even more). Here’s a couple of giggle-inducing lines from the book:
The train’s leaving the station,
it’s about to go down.
My ticket is stamped
for a trip to Pound Town.
Your job is to sleep like the heaviest rock.
Because nobody likes a cockblock.
Irreverent Tote Bags, Cards and More from Etsy
If the moms you know are anything like me, then they also hate grocery shopping. (Does anyone actually like grocery shopping??) This tote bag adds a little fun to the otherwise annoying chore of finding goods to feed your family. The Etsy seller who designed this bag also sells other awesome stuff in her shop, including perfectly accurate and funny cards. If you can’t make up your mind what to buy for that special mom in your life, you can always get an Etsy gift card, which is definitely not a gift that will go to waste. From custom invitations to personalized prints, there’s something for everyone.
PicMonkey Subscription
Is the mom you’re shopping for a mamarazzi? Does she take about a zillion photos of her children every day? Then she’s just like me and she NEEDS PicMonkey in her life. PicMonkey makes photo editing super easy; you can use filters, crop, resize, touch up, lighten, brighten, add text, make collages. Almost every one of my original photos on this blog has been edited in PicMonkey. There is an awesome free version of PicMonkey, but the $33 annual subscription is well worth it for all the extra tools. You might be thinking “What about Photoshop?” Believe me, I love Photoshop and use it daily. But it’s also way more complicated and way more expensive; I can’t do anything quickly in it because I find myself becoming engulfed in the infinite world of Photoshop. When I want to edit quickly (which is necessary for this blog which has an average of two dozens photos in every post), I turn to PicMonkey. Any mom can easily learn to use PicMonkey and make their photos look fantastic! An annual membership is a great gift for any photography-loving mom or dad.
A Swaddle Blanket That Says It All
Need a gift for a mother that just had her first or second child? This swaddle blanket from Coveted Things hits the nail on the head.
For a Tired Mom (i.e. Every Mom)
Weestructed makes some of the coolest and cutest parenting stuff — mugs, t-shirts, accessories. I especially like their trademarked saying “Raising Tiny Humans is Exhausting.” I think every parent can agree with this statement, so you can’t go wrong with the Raising Tiny Humans is Exhausting mug for a gift.
A Gift That Can Deliver Everything
Sometimes I wonder how I lived without Amazon Prime. As a mother who does not like to go in stores with my children, it has saved my sanity. Anything (and I mean ANYTHING) can be found on Amazon and be at my door within two days. And during the hour each week that I have to relax, I can find a TV show or movie that’s free to watch with Amazon Prime (currently I’m loving the Amazon series Catastrophe…add it to your watchlist!). There are also a bunch of free cartoons available to entertain the offspring. At $99 a year for Prime membership, this isn’t a cheap gift — but a good idea for a close friend or relative, or to purchase with a group. Netflix and other subscription services are also great gift ideas.
A Tool to Calm Down
All moms need time to relax and unwind. So why not jump on board with the adult coloring craze and purchase a coloring book as a gift for a mama? I personally love the ones with swear words. And since I can’t often say these words out loud anymore, a coloring book with bad words seems like the perfect compromise. I especially like the phrases in Calm the F**ck Down, because what parent with a screaming newborn or talkative preschooler wouldn’t enjoy coloring the words “I Love the Sound You Make When You Shut Up”?
Family Photos
Here’s another outside-the-box gift idea that’s also totally practical. (Plus, a Mother’s Day gift guide would not be complete without something sentimental.) A gift card for a session of professional family photos! Every mom cherishes family photos and it’s not often that families can capture photos of everyone together (as a mom who’s rarely in photos with her children, I know what I’m talking about). This is a meaningful gift that will keep giving for years and years to come.
Custom Comic
Every child says hilarious stuff that their parents want to remember always. Well, now those funny moments can be immortalized into a custom comic with Peanut Gallery Comics. Starting at $25, a child’s shenanigans can be made into a comic — how cool is that? Such an awesome gift for a mom or dad! And if you’re unsure of a funny story to use for the comic, you can purchase a gift card instead.
For the Mom with a Tribe
I love this “Raising My Tribe” t-shirt from Little Adi and Co. for a mom with more than one kid. It’s perfect attire to go grocery shopping in with yoga pants, while lugging around a couple kids.
