Functional Birthday Present

[RandomUser456878]

Wanting to hear opinions on this birthday present

My girlfriend is 39 weeks pregnant, its her birthday this week & she's due the week after. For a while she's mentioned about getting either a coffee machine or a kettle for our bedroom. Everytime we go to a hotel, we say we should get one for our room.

Anyhow, a few days back I saw an Ad for a Russell Hobbs 'Calm' Kettle. Its a 'quiet boil' kettle that places soothing, meditation like sounds while its boiling. Video linked here Hadn't seen anything like this before and thought it was quite unique.

Also Thought it would be perfect for making cups of tea in the night/Morning, while soothing the baby with the noises instead of waking it up with the noises of a kettle & we could use for sterilising if we needed too.

Along side the kettle, I got some nice mugs from Dunelm, some little spoons & a matching tray & matching bowl for used teabags. Teabags, Coffee Sachets & Milk Sachets.
Essentially made up a little area like a hotel in our bedroom
Spent £150 in total

It arrived today so set it up & said she can have her birthday present early. But she was abit disappointed. She thinks its a 'house purchase' and shouldn't be a birthday present.
By 'House Purchase' she means just a standard thing we should just buy for the house.

To add some more context on our situation... We have alot of disposible income each month & pretty much buy whatever we want/need so we're hard to buy presents for.
We're also pretty much sorted for the baby so don't need anything there. Our parents gave us money for Christmas which we've just banked for the baby.

AIBU - Crap Present, It should be a standard buy
AINBU - Good Present

Yes! And there's a story behind it with the hotel etc. I'd be chuffed too!

I've asked for a coffee machine as a gift before, I've asked for straighteners etc. I do think it's a little ungrateful tbh to tell someone you're disappointed about a gift too. It's not like you bought her some pans and said it's so 'you can cook me dinner'.

She sounds spoilt!

It's not a push present!!

My (our) opinion on travel is that it's no different to being at home. You just have less stuff with you at any given time. But anything you need or have at home, you can get in any location.

So its only the airport & Flight thats the difference.
Obviously our opinon may change once the baby arrives

In September we saw a couple in Albania with a 3 month old & we both said we want that to be us.
I get 2 months off on paternity plus holidays (I have half of last years plus this years) so plenty of time to be away during that first year. I can also 'work from anywhere' so can do extended trips where I work in the middle.
For example. I could do 1 week off, 1 week work, 1 week off, 1 week work. We'd be away for a month but only take 2 weeks AL/Paternity

Obviously this may change once the baby arrives but thats my thinking at the minute

We are probably both guilty of being abit spoilt to be honest 😂

@TY78910 the difference is that you asked for a coffee machine as a gift. It sounds like the op's partner was saying that they should set up a tea making area in their room , this doesn't explicitly mean that she wants one as a gift. It's the kind of thing you might sit together with your laptop and order.

Is your house so huuuuuge that it's an inconvenience to walk to the kitchen to make a hot drink?

Honestly I would hold off flights to Thailand until your baby is born. It’s not ‘the same as being at home’ when you have a baby. There’s a whole other person to consider, who has loads of stuff. Your partner might feel different about travelling abroad with her baby too. I’m much more nervous about travel now that I have a baby, before I would have gone anywhere.

Nope not at all. We have quiet a small house, standard semi detached.

But our bedrooms on the 3rd floor, so kettle in the bedroom could be handy for a new mum to save her going up and down the stairs for her morning cuppa

Ok I'll maybe give it a miss for now. I did send her the flights earlier when I saw them but she never replied (before this thread)

So she's either not interested or peed off about the kettle haha😂

And I would really look into vaccinations. Most infants and babies aren't covered to travel the world.

Good point! Thanks for that.
I probably need to check our jabs too now I think of it. I got some extra ones for South east asia last time

Another point is a lot of babies and young children don't fit travelling. Screaming hours and hours because of parents aren't able to settle at home.

If your baby is due soon he or she would be about 9 months old in November? My DS is 10 months. 9 months old is difficult. He is mobile which makes taking him anywhere more stressful, as rooms have to be babyproofed. We’re weaning so always have to take suitable food and milk with us.

He naps regularly and if he doesn’t have his naps, he’s extremely grumpy and sleeps badly at night. He’s also becoming much more self aware and opinionated! He is lovely but this age is still challenging, in different ways to the newborn stage. In a lot of ways he’s less portable as he’s older. We have been on holiday with him but I wouldn’t say it was relaxing. Nice to spend time together as a family, but worlds apart from our usual trips. And this was only short haul!

I see her point. Birthday gifts in my opinion are for the sole use of the person whose birthday it is- jewellery, etc.

A toilet????

I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing!!!

OP I think your present is thoughtful, and I'd have loved it, but in late pregnancy I struggled to appreciate anything.

I would suggest that you may want to test the waters first.

While you think that it is only a change in scenery and the only challenge is the travel, the realities of babies and travelling are really different and difficult, specially if you are in an unfamiliar place with a different language and are trying to find the basics such as formula, or if the baby feels unwell.

I wish you luck 🍀

Found the perfect card anyway on thortful

It sounds like a thoughtful gift and if it was something she said she wanted, but hadn't bought it for herself then I can understand why you bought it. It's my birthday soon and my dh keeps asking what I want and I can't think of anything, so I know it ls often hard to buy other people. Perhaps given the timing of the baby she would liked something more personal like pamper bits/ new pj's etc.

It's better than buying her nipple cream, nursing top and post pregnancy vitamins which i got from mil when I was 8 months pregnant on my birthday

It's her last birthday before she becomes someone's mum, but her present is in preparation of being someone's mum....

I think she probably just wanted to be treated as her, not your baby's mother.

I think that it was a really thoughtful gift, but maybe you could have bought her a little something ‘just for her’ and a bit romantic too.

Regarding the travel - your posts are making me smile. You’ve got such a shock in store!

I’m sure you’ll rise to it.

@RandomUser456878 a couple of thoughts.

If you're likely to be doing a lot of driving trips, have you thought about a lie flat car seat? It would be much more comfortable for the baby even if you are stopping regularly.

The Polaroid camera is a nice idea but it is still technically baby centred. I definitely think you should get it though, or an instax printer where you can print photos from your phones.

The baby is a present for the house though too as they’ll both be benefiting. No need for OP to go overboard.

Yeah I think it if was 39 weeks pregnant and my DH was sending me flights for a trip to Thailand I would be rolling my eyes/inwardly panicking!

I think it’s a nice gift, you put a lot of thought into it, it wasn’t “just” a kettle. I would much rather my DH get me thoughtful gifts than just throw money at expensive things that he’s not thought about.