Friday, July 1, 2011

Push Presents?

Make a baby, get a shiny?
I've never heard of this before, but according to the New York Times, lots of women are now getting presents from their husbands for delivering a baby, sometimes in the delivery room itself.  It's apparently enough of a phenomenon somewhere that I heard about it at all because one of my friends liked this blog post on why the blogger dislikes the custom.  A couple of friends reported in response that their husbands had, in fact, given them jewelry in the delivery room.

From a PF standpoint, this seems pretty weird to me.  As I've touched on before, pregnancy is expensive, and I don't think child-rearing gets cheaper.  So what I really need is for my household to spring for some shiny rocks?  Keep in mind that the friends who reported "push presents" both work, even though they claim they'd like to be full-time moms, but just can't afford it.  If shiny rocks can come out of your monthly "blow budget," shiny away.  But for the rest of us, it seems an inefficient use of financial resources in a time of uncertain but greater financial stress.

Did you get or give a "push present?"  Would you?  Am I crazy for thinking that this is another "Hallmark occasion" dreamed up by the jewelry industry, and scarily reminiscent of the times when a woman's value was bound up almost entirely in her ability to produce children?

2 comments:

  1. I agree, I find the idea of push presents to be a little odd. It seems kind of tacky, even if she does deserve recognition for those past 9 months + the labor. I wouldn't expect a present. A beautiful healthy baby would be reward enough.

    The one thing I could imagine would be those necklaces with all the children's birthstones in them, like these: http://www.lifetimemothers.com/prodinfo.asp?number=317500 or maybe the ones you could add to after each baby. But I'd wait until mother's day to get those.

    I think this is more a trend among the upper-middle class and higher; maybe a last reminder of the money you wont be able to spend on yourself, as you're no longer DINKs or something.

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  2. I've never heard of this and it seems really weird and unnecessary. Isn't the gift... the baby? Do you really also need or want earrings at that point? Don't you just want to sleep?

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