5 “Acts of Kindness” Gifts for New Parents

When friends and family members welcome a 7 or 8 pound bundle of joy into their lives, we rush out to the retail baby mega stores for that “perfect gift.” We fill our carts with clothes, toys, books and products that claim to make baby eat, sleep and poop better. We’ll drive all over town searching for miracle blankets and twirling mobiles. Maybe we should stop and consider that sometimes the most “unique gifts” are acts of kindness. When I look back at our first days at home with our 7 pound bundle of joy, I have a hard time recalling who brought our son the lion and who sung lullabies, but I can remember clearly the faces that appeared above a steaming plate of spaghetti.

When your friends bring home a baby, they are not bringing home the bacon. (Literal translation= no one in the home has time to cook!) It’s actually very ironic: At a time when parents need the energy from a good meal, they simply don’t have the energy to prepare one. If you make a meal that can be frozen and prepared quickly and easily with little effort from the parents, you are giving a thoughtful gift in the form of an act of kindness. Show up with lasagna and a note to freeze until ready, bake at 350, you have friends for life. If you think to bring paper plates and napkins so as to avoid making dirty dishes, your friends would probably take a bullet for you.

One responsibility that falls off the new parents’ radar is the maintenance of the lawn. If you spent one Saturday afternoon at the new parents’ house mowing the lawn, trimming the edges and raking the leaves, you would be giving the whole neighborhood a gift. If you’re the organizing type, you could even arrange to have a few friends rotate this responsibility so that it was off the minds of the parents for a month or so.

Although a baby is a tiny creature, he can create a lot of laundry. Offer to pick up the new family’s laundry one week and return it washed, dried and ironed the next day. Just be sure to wash the baby’s items in a dye free scent free laundry detergent as their new skin is very sensitive.

It’s difficult for women to ignore the mess that is created in their home. New moms battle between letting the mess pile up and leaving it for another day. The exhaustion that comes with a new baby makes it difficult to keep the house clean and the love that comes with a new baby makes you want to spend your time cuddling and cooing the new one. Give the new mom a break by spending a few hours cleaning up her house. Mop or vacuum the floors, do the dishes and some light dusting and you’ll see the weight lifted right off the new mom’s shoulders.

Nothing can be more difficult on new parents than the sleep deprivation. The best thing you can do for a new parent is to provide them with a long nap. The way you can do this is to insist on coming over and holding the baby so mom and dad can go lie down. If the baby is being breast fed you can wake mom for feedings; if the baby is bottle fed, you can offer to feed the baby and allow the parents to take a longer nap. Who knew that sleep would be the biggest act of kindness you could offer to someone?