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 give my first time mum friends

• 3m iPhone (or USB) charging cable for when they’re stuck on the sofa under a baby
• Contigo West Loop coffee flask and Camelbak Eddy water bottle - both good to use when stuck under a baby and terrified of spilling water/hot coffee on them

Total cost about £50 so same as delivered flowers really.

The number of friends who come back a few weeks later and say “you have no idea how handy those were” is lovely.

A word of warning about COOK vouchers - I was given one and it was surprisingly difficult to use. You can't use them in shops/garden centres that have a COOK freezer - you can only use them in a COOK shop, or online. If you use them online you have to pay a hefty wedge for delivery. So when my baby was 10 days old DH and I ended up going on a 48-mile round trip to spend the bloody COOK voucher. The food was pleasant enough but very overpriced for what it was. I wasn't a fan.

I hate cut flowers. Poor, dead things. I can't arrange them properly and they just sit there, slowly decaying until I chuck them in the bin. Give me a houseplant any day.

I came home from a week in hospital with newborn DS to a massive bouquet from DH's work. I literally said 'yay, another thing to look after, just what I wanted'. And yes, I was an ungrateful twunt.

Things I would have appreciated at that time:

A cook
A cleaner
A nanny
Sleep