A couple weeks ago I was watching Good Morning America (I know, I’m such a suburban mom) and they were talking about “push presents.” I’ve talked about the idea of giving a mother jewelry after the birth of a child but I never knew there was an actual name for it! And such an obnoxious name at that. I have some new opinions on the topic after watching the story on GMA and also after having a baby myself.

The story on GMA had some really ridiculous examples of actual “push presents” women received for having a baby. One woman they talked to had a diamond bracelet her husband bought her after having their baby. They also had examples from Hollywood of celebrities spending thousands and thousands of dollars on presents for women having babies. I think their examples were completely crazy.

I think I said before that if I had a baby, I wanted a present. I’ve totally changed my mind. The baby is my gift. My husband’s support through pregnancy and his help in taking care of our son is my gift. I don’t need him to spend money on me that we could put into a college fund for our baby. Of course, I am in a little bit of a different situation than most people.

I happened to have a diamond baby (born in April.) He was supposed to be born in May which would have been Emerald but both worked for me. I liked the idea of May baby because I have an Emerald from my grandmother

but April works too because I have a nice diamond pendant that I wear all the time.

I don’t need to spend any money to have pieces with my child’s birthstone. I also have an extensive collection of stones that would cover pretty much any month. Even if only had the stone, I don’t think I would have pushed to have piece made right after my son’s birth.

I think mothers’ jewelry is very fun and special but I think it has to be sensible and I don’t think it should be a reward for having a baby. I will probably wait until I am finished having children and maybe even until we have a lot of money saved for their college funds before I spend any money on myself. Having a baby should be the reason for having a baby, not diamonds.

Men may not know this, but when a woman has a baby, it is appropriate to get her a gift. I am totally of the feeling that if a woman has a baby, she deserves a present. This may be a controversial opinion, but when I have a baby, I want some recognition! Jewelry is of course, a pretty popular gift for this occasion.

If you are planning on having a lot of kids, jewelry might not be the best gift because it can get expensive and the chances of the mother wearing all of the jewelry is slimmer the more jewelry she has. If you are planning for 1 or 2 kinds, heck yeah jewelry is completely appropriate.

When buying a gift for a new mother, I don’t think the gift has to be about the child if you don’t want it to be. I think diamond studs or a simple pendant are just as appropriate as something with birthstones. In fact, I might wait on anything with birthstones until you are finished having children and make one piece with all of the birthstones. If you do want to buy a gift for the new mother that represents her new child, make sure you know her taste so you don’t just buy something to buy something. Believe it or not, there are women who don’t like heart, mother/child jewelry, or colors of gemstones just because it is either their or their child’s birthstone. But there are women that do like those things and would wear jewelry like that every day of their lives.

The moral of the story=buy the woman in your life a present if she has a baby, she’ll appreciate it I promise. But don’t just buy her jewelry to buy her jewelry. If you are going to invest in a piece of jewelry, make sure she’ll love and wear it everyday even after that child is grown up.