Keep hearing people say that flowers are a crap thing to send a new mum. Are they?? What would you send instead?

[Mismanaged2]

I love getting flowers! Absolutely love it. They make my house smell and look lovely. Getting them is a delight.

But are they a crap gift for a new mum?? I wouldn’t have thought so, but I heard someone say it. (Tbh if someone had sent me flowers after my baby was born, I would have been thrilled. No one did though! Instead, lots of newborn baby clothes and toys. Which, actually, I didn’t really need... very gratefully received though.)

What do you think?

I don't have flowers in my house normally so of course I got loads when I had DD. My favourite gift was a lovely bottle of single malt scotch from a friend, I fairly sobbed on her shoulder when she handed it over, I was so bloody grateful!

I would give a Cook frozen meal or a hone made version with a small bunch of daffodils rather than spend £15 on flowers.

My friend is a foodie do I bought her a platter if cured meats and cheese plus cava. She was delighted!

My wife got some muslin cloths rolled and arranged into a sort of flower bouquet, which was nice. Although obviously a massively over priced for some muslin cloths.

I would receive flowers however she will probably receive loads. I have bought some nice bubble baths in the past. I have also bought a nice photo frame so they could put a picture of the baby in.

The thing is, everyone has different ideas of what’s helpful. I gave birth in January and a few flowers probably would have brightened up the dreary winter house. No one sent any though. We got given so many packs of nappies, but we use cloth nappies, so they’ve ended up heaped under the spare bed until DS grew out of them, and then donated. That was unnecessary faff. I also never use handcream so that would be clutter for me too.

The best gift we got was the person who turned up the day before DH went back to work with a week’s worth of food shopping including many many snacks and ready meals. Perfect.

I'm not sure about nice bath things etc. I had quite a lot of stitches and couldn't use anything like that for a couple of months. They don't go off though I suppose

I got flowers and LOVED them but I love flowers anyway.
My favourite gift was a ready meal!

My favourite present was a box of big chocolate chip cookies DH was given with the instructions that they were for me only

I like flowers but they're just another chore sometimes when I've a lot on and I can't be bothered to arrange them and faff around trimming the stems.

One of my best friends had a bottle of gin delivered to me a week after I gave birth. That was my favourite present! It was so nice to be treated like me and not “generic new mum” (I got so many “pamper kits” with nipple and stretch mark creams in)

I was given a chilli plant cutting and had a complete panic about the fact that I was expected to keep it and a baby alive. Poor thing was barely watered doe weeks. It's hardy though as 3 years later it gives me a constant supply of chillies :)

Flowers are just one more thing to keep alive! I appreciated anything that helped keep me or the baby alive- preferably food!

Everyone's different - I ebayed the expensive hand creams and probably put the money towards the electricity bill tbh as we were so skint. I never use hand cream and hate the feeling of it.

A voucher for a coffee shop chain would have been great actually because I'd have been able to get out the house to meet up with people without feeling like it was breaking the bank.

I love flowers, I received a lovely boxed bouquet after my first birth, unfortunately we were in hospital for 15 days so by the time I got out they were not at the best!

Sorting out dead flowers is one more thing i didn’t want to do with a newborn.

And I’ve never got the new mum pamper stuff either... whilst recovering from the birth anything other than water isn’t recommended, and after that who has the time to spend an hour in the bath/doing stuff? Frankly I’d much rather sleep.

A delivery fromCook is far more useful when you've just had a baby.

I loved flowers or a meal or baby clothes in larger sizes. Didn't really want chocolates or alcohol or bath products and I didn't get much of that. Probably got too many teddies for the baby tbh but other toys were great.

I tend to buy good windproof gloves for mums of winterborn babies: it's chilly pushing a baby about

We were sent flowers on ice from sodding Jersey. Which didn't arrive when the sender thought they would, so we were supposed to chase them up.

So we ended up with 2 lots of ridiculously environmentally wasteful flowers in different stages of decay and polystyrene.

A bouquet of biscuits would have been welcome though.

I felt completely overwhelmed after my first baby was born and the flowers we received only added to that. I had nowhere to put them, ran out of vases and no time to take them out of their packaging etc.
Mine all died without me having even looked at them too as I spent most of the first week in bed recovering. Second time around I got none and would have been able to appreciate them.

I think they are a lovely gift for a new mum. I got flowers after one of my births and was delighted to get them.

Personally I hate having to look after flowers. I like to send a just eats type meal voucher so any overwhelmed mums can cross dinner off the to do list one night

I was on the receiving end of something like @gotmychocolateimgood suggested (fizz, cured meats, cheese, plus they brought the plates so didn't even need to wash up!) and it was honestly so thoughtful and kind. Really felt like a treat.

I got a few bunches when DS arrived & was very happy. The best were the ones which came with a vase and instructions for DH! - esp as this was just a few days after the birth.