The New Mom Connection
Baby Shower: Give Your Friend the Gift of Mother Wisdom
By Ann Douglas
Remember what it was like when you first became a mother? How you started to feel like you’d been selected for the most brutal reality television show ever, Motherhood Survivor? “Why didn’t anyone tell me it would be like this?” you wondered as you did the middle-of-the-night mother dance with your fussy baby, desperately trying to usher him off to lullaby land so that you could steal some shut-eye yourself….
ADVICE UNLIMITED
If you’re planning a shower for a friend who is about to have a baby, the best gift you can give her is a guided tour of life on “Planet Mom”. Here are five fun ways to give your party guests a chance to pass along their best advice to the mom-to-be.
1. Picture Perfect Advice: Create a poster for your friend that features an eye-catching photo (perhaps a shot of your friend’s very pregnant belly). Ask each guest to jot her favourite tip on the poster as she arrives.
2. AdviceCam: Most shower guests are natural-born hams and will welcome the opportunity to offer on-camera advice. By the end of the party, you’ll have a one-of-a-kind motherhood video to pass along to your friend.
3. Recipe for Success: Include an index card with each baby shower invite, and ask each party guest to jot down her best advice on the card.
4. First Year Survival Guide: Purchase a scrapbook and ask party guests to jot their best bits of mother wisdom on to pages dedicated to such themes as “chasing down the sandman,” “taming the laundry monster,” and “making time for romance.” Voila! The ultimate first year survival guide!
5. Postcards from the Edge: Ask each party guest to purchase a postcard which best symbolizes what the early weeks of motherhood will be like (a mountain climbing expedition? swinging from a trapeze?) and to include their best mothering advice on the back. Let them know that if they include their favourite quote about motherhood, they’ll be eligible to win a special door prize (a collection of quotations about motherhood, naturally!)
IT’S IN THE CARDS
Want to take our card idea and run with it? To help get you started, we’ve jotted down some ideas below....
Bet you never thought….you’d find yourself describing the colour and texture of your baby’s stools with the same enthusiasm you once reserved for paint chips and fabric swatches.
Until the day when….your slightly squeamish single girlfriend asks if you could switch topics until after she finishes her lunch.
So my advice to you is….to choose your audience with care when you’re passing along the poop on motherhood. And know when it’s best to skip to the executive summary!
Bet you never thought….you’d have to rent the same movie more than once in order to catch the ending
Until the day when…. you caught yourself dozing off during Cold Mountain for the third time.
So my advice to you is….to consider watching movies during the daytime rather than the evening, and to shift any post-movie romance to an earlier time-slot, too. (You won’t score any points with your leading man if you doze off during sex either.)
Bet you never thought….it would be that difficult to make a home-cooked meal after your baby was born
Until the day when….you looked in the refrigerator and couldn’t find anything to eat but condiments and moldy mystery casserole.
So my advice to you is….to fill your freezer with healthy entrees and to let friends and family members pitch in with meal-making after your baby is born. You’ll also want to stock your cupboards and your refrigerator with healthy, easy-to-prepare foods, including every new parent’s best friend—salad in a bag!
Bet you never thought….that your arms could ache from carrying around a tiny newborn baby
Until the day when….you realized that a day in the motherhood trenches tires you out more than any workout you’ve ever done at the gym.
So my advice to you is….to invest in a good baby carrier. Not only will a baby carrier give your arms a bit of a break when baby is having a “hold me” kind of day. It will also allow you and baby to get mobile!
Bet you never thought….you could feel so many emotions at the same time about being a new mother
Until the day when….a simple “how are you?” from a friend who really cares caused you to start laughing and crying at the same time
Want to take our card idea and run with it? To help get you started, we’ve jotted down some ideas below....
Bet you never thought….you’d find yourself describing the colour and texture of your baby’s stools with the same enthusiasm you once reserved for paint chips and fabric swatches.
Until the day when….your slightly squeamish single girlfriend asks if you could switch topics until after she finishes her lunch.
So my advice to you is….to choose your audience with care when you’re passing along the poop on motherhood. And know when it’s best to skip to the executive summary!
Bet you never thought….you’d have to rent the same movie more than once in order to catch the ending
Until the day when…. you caught yourself dozing off during Cold Mountain for the third time.
So my advice to you is….to consider watching movies during the daytime rather than the evening, and to shift any post-movie romance to an earlier time-slot, too. (You won’t score any points with your leading man if you doze off during sex either.)
Bet you never thought….it would be that difficult to make a home-cooked meal after your baby was born
Until the day when….you looked in the refrigerator and couldn’t find anything to eat but condiments and moldy mystery casserole.
So my advice to you is….to fill your freezer with healthy entrees and to let friends and family members pitch in with meal-making after your baby is born. You’ll also want to stock your cupboards and your refrigerator with healthy, easy-to-prepare foods, including every new parent’s best friend—salad in a bag!
Bet you never thought….that your arms could ache from carrying around a tiny newborn baby
Until the day when….you realized that a day in the motherhood trenches tires you out more than any workout you’ve ever done at the gym.
So my advice to you is….to invest in a good baby carrier. Not only will a baby carrier give your arms a bit of a break when baby is having a “hold me” kind of day. It will also allow you and baby to get mobile!
Bet you never thought….you could feel so many emotions at the same time about being a new mother
Until the day when….a simple “how are you?” from a friend who really cares caused you to start laughing and crying at the same time
So my advice to you is….to come clean about how you’re feeling so that other people in your life can provide you with support, reassurance, and plenty of hands-on help. You don’t get extra marks for switching into martyr mode at this or any other stage of motherhood, so don’t be afraid to call for backup every now and again!
Ann Douglas is the author of Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler: The Ultimate No-Worry Guide for Each Age and Stage, Mealtime Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler: The Mother of All Pregnancy Books, The Mother of All Baby Books, The Mother of All Pregnancy Organizers, and numerous other pregnancy and parenting books. Visit www.having-a-baby.com to find out more about Ann and her books.