Baby Gift Ideas For The Second (Or Third) Baby

We just recently had our second child, and our friends and family were soon asking 'what can I buy for the new baby'?

To be honest, at first I didn't have a clue... we already had most of the standard baby gear from having had our first child. And being that we had another girl, we already had all the 'girly' stuff on hand. This really got me to thinking, what are some good baby gift ideas for people when they have their second (or third, etc) baby? When they don't need any more 'baby stuff'?

I'm a huge fan of giving baby gifts (so much so that we created an online baby gift store). I like to give gifts that I know will be used and enjoyed, and not become another outfit that they never take the tags off because they already have so many clothes. Here are a few 'non-stuff' baby gift ideas that I came up with.

1. Give the gift of time

A new baby in the house adds more work on top of what is usually an already busy household. Any parent I know would love to have some extra time on their hands, so they can get to those projects that never seem to get done or can perhaps have some rest and relaxation time for themselves. Take the older children out for an afternoon, or offer to come over and cuddle the new baby for a couple of hours. You could even plan to do this once a week for a few weeks until they get settled into a new routine.

Just be sure when you do so, that you make sure that mom actually does go 'away' and take advantage of the gift of time. Knowing moms (and myself!) there is a tendency to stick around the house even when someone is over to help with the kids... and so it doesn't really end up feeling like I got an extra time at all. So you may have to tell mom and dad to 'shoo!' and get out for a while.

2. Give the gift of food

The weekend after my daughter was born my mom did a day of cooking and came over with about 15 frozen homemade meals. All I had to do was defrost, heat and they were ready to eat. This is probably one of my favorite baby gifts ever, as I totally didn't need to think about supper for a good few weeks.

Now you don't need to go ahead and make quite so many meals... one or two meals is plenty. If you aren't a cook perhaps you could bring over a nice meal from a good local restaurant one night. Or maybe arrange for some food from a local meal delivery service. Anything that takes cooking off the 'to-do' list will be hugely appreciated.

3. Give the gift of activity

There are some really great activity classes out there for babies - music classes, swimming lessons, etc. See if you can get a gift certificate for baby to go to one of these classes... they may not enroll right away but it will be great to have for when baby is ready. And I know some of these classes can be a bit expensive for parents, and they may not be able to pay for a class otherwise even though they would love to attend.

4. Give the gift of education

Many people these days are starting education funds for their children. Ask if they have started a fund (or if they plan to do so) and look to see if you can contribute. This is the kind of gift that you know will really be put to use down the road.

5. Give mom and dad a gift!

Busy parents need a treat for themselves too, but they usually don't treat themselves very often. Buy mom a massage, spa day or book her a hair appointment at a great local salon. For dad perhaps tickets to a local sporting event or take him out for an afternoon of golf. Something that allows them to have some regular adult fun and that they normally wouldn't buy for themselves.

This is a great gift to pair with the gift of time... offer to take care of the kids while mom goes to get her massage or dad goes out for a round of golf.

I know, it is really hard to resist buying some of the great baby gifts that are out there. If you really want to buy them 'stuff' as a gift, I recommend checking in with mom first to see what they would use. Chances are they really don't need anymore clothes, blankets, baby towels, or toys to add to what they already have.

For example, we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl with either of our kids, and so all of my wee baby stuff is yellow and green. After our second daughter was born it would have been really nice to get some pink stuff in those newborn sizes. (but I certainly didn't need any clothes in the larger sizes, we had plenty of that already).

There is nothing better than a new baby, so go ahead and keep on giving... just make sure it is something that will be used and enjoyed.

Tina Forsyth is a mother of two lovely girls and owner of the online baby gift store http://www.myfavoritebabygifts.com She is also an online business manager and works with her clients to help them tap into the power of the internet to help build their businesses. Tina can be reached at tina@onlinebusinessmanager.com

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