My friend had her first child and I was going over to see her and meet her new baby. I’d gotten a stuffed animal for her baby boy, but as I was thinking about it, it occurred to me that this baby was going to have lots of new stuff, but wasn’t necessarily going to appreciate any of it. I understand that it was going to mean something to my friend that I was celebrating the birth of her child, but that’s really I wanted to do – celebrate the birth of HER child, and not just the child himself. There would be plenty of time for that down the road with birthday parties, graduation gifts and just because celebrations. The milestone for my friend was having her first child, and I wanted to celebrate that with her. In thinking about what she might like, I knew she was going to washing her hands a lot – changing diapers, washing bottles, cleaning up and so on. So I got her one of my favorite healing hand creams that was beautifully packaged and had a nice, subtle fragrance – something I didn’t think she would buy for herself. I went over to her house, met the baby, spent some time with her and went on with life. A couple years later, she casually mentioned that I was the only person who had brought something to her and it had meant the world to her. I was floored – it had meant so much to her that she was bringing it up years later. It made me happy to have made her happy, so from there on our, when I was buying new baby gifts, I tried to make sure I got a little something for mom, too. -C, 36
We’ve got to look out for the big people as well as the little people.
