Life of a working mom: Working parents could use practical gifts

Talk about it

The Christmas shopping season is upon us, and my friends who don’t have children have asked me what to buy the working parents in their lives.

I think they may be surprised by my answers. The gifts we want are not glamorous or obvious.

If I received a gift certificate for one free baby sitter for the day, I would cry. If you don’t have children, you may not realize just how precious baby-sitting is. That also gives us the gift of time: time to go grocery shopping, pay bills or, even better, get some sleep!

The other thing we would very much appreciate is baby supplies. Diapers are a great gift. Babies go through about a box a week. According to a report by National Geographic, a baby will wear 3,796 diapers in his or her lifetime. And diapers aren’t cheap.

The next thing on the list is batteries. Nearly every toy these days requires battery power, and batteries are expensive. We need them in every shape and size. Once you purchase the diapers, baby food, formula, baby lotion, wipes, diapers and everything else your baby needs, there is no money left for batteries for the toys.

It’s a sad sight when your child’s cute little toys start to die. Music plays slowly and a toy train barely chugs along. These toys don’t just need one or two batteries. They need six, sometimes eight, batteries for one toy. If those toys could spring back to life I know my son, Joey, would really appreciate it.

If you want to go the extra mile, volunteer to go into the parent’s home and replace all the batteries. Once working parents get home from work, spend time with baby, get baby to sleep and get all the house chores done, the last thing we want to do late at night is sit up with a screw driver trying to replace batteries. A coupon for one “battery-changing session” would be awesome.

There are a few more things parents won’t ask for, but trust me, they all need them.

When you see us out and about, please open doors for us, offer to carry a bag or help bag our groceries. Do all you can to help us get out of the store, church or mall quickly because our children are ticking time bombs, and we never know when they may go off.

When you see us shopping, we rarely are having fun. It starts out great. We point out items to our baby and try to teach the child colors and words. But

checkout time is miserable, because baby has no patience at that point. The last thing on our “wish list”: Don’t judge us, tell us how to be better parents or tell us how miserable we will be when our babies grow up and become teenagers. We’ve heard it all a million times.

Instead, just ask how our baby is doing. Our babies are our favorite subject to talk about. Give us the gift of patience, kindness and understanding. We are caring for a little human being who depends on us for everything. It’s an awesome responsibility and we will never forget those who helped us along the way. The only way parents can do a good job is with a good support network. Know that when you help parents, you actually are helping their baby. Because if parents have support, love and some rest, then they can do an even better job raising their child.

The small things make a big difference, and there’s nothing better than making a difference in the life of a child.

Julie Moravchik is news director at KQDS-TV, FOX 21. You can reach her at jmoravchik@kqdsfox21.tv or post a comment to her column on the Scrapbook page of duluthnewstribune.com. You can write to her at 2001 London Road, Duluth, MN 55812-2126.

Tags: julie moravchik, life of a working mom, scrapbook, advice, parenting, family