Valentine Gifts for 30 Something Moms

I can’t speak for everyone, but most of my 30-something mom friends are like me, they were married in their early to mid-20s and had their kids in their mid- to late 20s. We’ve been married for a while, and Valentine’s Day got shoved to the back of our minds when our kids were first born. As our kids enter preschool and kindergarten, we’re not necessarily as completely overwhelmed by the responsibilities of new motherhood, and Valentine’s Day is back on the radar.

Valentine’s Day is only a short week away, and our husbands (boyfriends, partners, etc.) are probably wondering what to get us. (If they’ve remembered it’s coming up at all!) I’m going to put it out there for our hubbies right now – a Valentine’s Day card is a no-brainer. If you don’t have that, you’re going to be in the doghouse. You don’t have to buy a $5.00 card at Hallmark, but show us that you’ve put some thought into it. Making a card is perfectly acceptable. Buying a cheap card but writing a sweet note inside is acceptable. Buying any card and forgetting to sign your name? Probably not a good idea.

And the gift part? Well, we 30-something moms vary widely as far as what we like, but there should be at least one thing on this list to suit almost any of us…

1. Our favorite flower(s). Not every woman likes flowers, but among those who do, not everyone likes the standard dozen red roses that every florist stocks up on every Valentine’s Day. Oh sure, roses are pretty, but I would much rather have a bouquet of alstromeria (Peruvian lilies) any day! They were in my wedding bouquet, as were daisies. I also have a thing for colorful wildflowers. If you can remember what flowers were in our wedding bouquets, you’re a step ahead of many of your male friends. Or you could just ask what flowers we like best. Probably best to do it more than a week before Valentine’s Day… but there’s always next year.
2. A night of sleep. Some of us don’t sleep very well. Some of us *cough* have husbands who snore quite loudly, or kids who still don’t sleep through the night. Show us how much you care by volunteering to sleep on the couch and get up with the kids during the night. We may just appreciate it so much that you’ll be invited into bed for a little love before we kick you out.
3. Chocolate. Cliche? Maybe. But I can count on one hand the number of women I know who don’t love chocolate. But don’t go for the standard heart-shaped box of chocolate unless you know we like all of the chocolates inside. Look for our favorites, whether that means dark chocolate truffles, chocolate-covered cherries, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, or Oreos. Unless we’re on a diet.
4. Gift cards. You hate to shop. We know it. Gift cards aren’t completely impersonal as long as you let us know that part of the gift is letting us spend them shopping with our girlfriends for a few hours while you watch the kids. Make sure it’s a store we like, where we’ll buy something for ourselves. Don’t buy us a gift card for Wal-Mart, because we may end up using it on light bulbs or groceries before we get a chance to have fun with it.
5. Check off your honey-do list. You know all of those things we’ve been nagging asking you nicely to do since last summer?  Those things you still haven’t done?  Fix what’s broken, clean what’s dirty, and throw that junk in the trash… That’s better than Barry White music.
6. Take us on a date. It doesn’t even have to be on Valentine’s Day.  Yeah, we can’t remember the last time we went out without the kids either. Adult conversation is good, at a restaurant where we don’t have to ask for a kids menu and worry about food ending up on the floor. Or a movie that isn’t rated G. Please? If you can wrangle a babysitter for overnight (grandma?) that’s even better.
7. Music. Concert tickets are awesome, if there’s a show coming up we’d like to see. If not, pick up our favorite band’s latest CD, the one we didn’t buy because we had to come up with money for a new tire when we got a flat. Or a gift card to iTunes. Or if you’ve got the voice for it, sing us a song.
8. Eye candy. You know we love you, right? Great, now that we’ve got that out of the way, you probably also noticed how much we drool over actors like Ewan McGregor and Brad Pitt. Buy (or rent) a DVD starring our favorite leading man. Snuggle up with us on the couch to watch it… it will probably lead to more later on. (Does it really matter who gets our engine running as long as you get to take us home?)
9. That ___ we keep talking about.  We know you don’t always get “subtle.”  If you’ve heard us mention how much we’d really like something, oh, 30 or 40 times in the past month, we’re probably trying to drop “hints” about what we really want you to get us.  Whether it’s jewelry, a new cell phone, or even something that seems completely random to you, if it seems to mean a lot to us, you’ll score big points by actually having listened and, er,  come up with the idea all by yourself.  Seriously, we’ll let you think that.
10. A massage. Between work, kids, errands, and everything else, a good massage would be totally awesome. You can give us a massage if you want, but unless you think you’re up for the hour-long massage we can get at the spa, you may want to leave it to the professionals. (If we’ve ever said “ouch” during one of your massages in the past, sending us to the spa would be the best way to go.) You’ll need to offer to watch the kids while we’re at the spa, too, because otherwise we’ll never have a chance to go!

Are you a mom? Is this list good enough to leave visible on your computer so that your husband can “accidentally” happen upon it? Or did I leave something off? Let me know!

Christina Gleason is 30 years old, wife to Tom and mother to TJ.  Read her blogs at Cutest Kid Ever and Uncharted Island, follow her on Twitter @cutestkidever or @ChristinaGayle, or connect with her on LinkedIn!

Related posts:

1. Great Gifts for Pregnant Moms
2. Top Gifts For Traveling Moms
3. Top Five Gifts of 2008 From Suburban Moms
4. Top Gifts for Urban Moms
5. Top Ten Gifts for Overworked Moms