When it comes to Valentine's Day after kids, gifts look less like flowers and chocolates and more like free hug coupons and high fives. To make this Valentine's Day a bit more special without going through a ton of effort, concentrate on getting the mom in your life a gift she really wants.
Below, we've compiled a list of appropriate gifts that all moms will approve of and actually enjoy immensely.
- Sleep. Offer to let her nap for a few hours — or a day.
- Child Care. Slap a few $20s into a babysitter's hands and tell Mom she can do whatever she wants with the gift of time, like read that book that's been on her nightstand since before she had kids (or, see Sleep).
- Wine. Jugs of it. And a private place to drink it all with her feet up would be nice.
- A Spa Weekend. Or honestly just a weekend away in a quiet room where no one under the age of 10 can find her. With a bathtub. And alcohol (see Wine).
- Snacks the Kids Can't Find. Make up a bag of her favorite snacks that the kids normally steal and let her indulge in her guilty pleasures alone (see Child Care).
- iCloud Storage Plan. No matter how fed up or exhausted a mom is, you know that she's taking 40,000 photos a day of her little monsters — an iPhone storage plan will eliminate the rage she feels 10 times a day when her phone tells her she has no more room for that 30th photo in a row of a drooly baby.
- Cleaning Services. There's nothing that turns on a mom more than not having to pick up after her family — pay someone to do it for her.
- An Automatic Coffee Pot. One of those nifty coffee pots that automatically brews on an alarm is a priceless gift. Go a step further and set yourself a fancy little alarm to fill it with grounds and water for her each night.
- A Soundproof Driver's Seat Barrier. So that she never has to listen to her kids screaming in the back seat [1] ever again.
- A Seamless Gift Card. So that she can order food . . . and have it delivered . . . without having to talk to a human. Because who the heck has time to cook anymore? (Let alone make meals for a toddler [2] who said he wanted chicken nuggets, which really meant macaroni and cheese, which obviously meant toast cut in diagonals — no, squares.)
- Someone to Call When the Going Gets Rough. When her son's potty training and peeing all over the house [3]? Dial the number and someone will take over. When her daughter wants to wear the same robot costume for 30 days in a row, but it's always filthy? Dial the number and the laundry will get done. Did we mention the number's for a genie? Check Yelp — I'm sure one for hire exists.
- The Flowers and Chocolates Anyway. Because what mom doesn't want to shovel chocolate into her mouth while staring at beautiful, clean flowers?