Do New Moms Really Need a Push Present?
June 11, 2011, By Brett Westerman 27 comments
I was at 35 weeks on the last leg before fatherhood, metaphorically rounding third and heading for home, when a coworker asked if I had gotten a “push present” for my wife. What? I had thoroughly researched baby products and felt rather prepared for the human bomb that was about to drop but had not counted on buying a push gift for my wife. I’ve since learned that the trend spreads by word of mouth among new parents, of which we were among the first in our group of friends; hence my ignorance. With no push present ideas in mind, I quickly scrambled the jets and started brainstorming.
Here’s the idea: the mother-to-be has selflessly endured nine months with a human inside her, a condition the expectant father certainly deserves some culpability for, and following a joyous birth the new mother is presented with a gift for her troubles. The terms “push present” and “push gift” are most often used, likely due to the pushing involved with delivery (makes sense to me) and the gift typically takes the form of jewelry.
What struck me as interesting is that the trend is not highly marketed by the jewelry industry. Have you ever seen a diamond advertisement filmed in a delivery room with the new grandmother proclaiming “Oh, he went to Jarrod’s!”? Me neither. This is more of a grassroots movement, perhaps driven by the new age of male enlightenment in which we live. I had sympathy for what my wife went through—morning sickness, inconvenient food cravings, serving as my designated driver on the weekends—and wanted to show that her sacrifice was appreciated. So I bought into the idea of a “push present.” Either through guilt or true sympathy, I began to worry about which shiny rock my wife would enjoy most.
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