Ask Dr. Helen: Do Husbands Owe Wives Post-Childbirth ‘Push Presents?’
Gifts are a token of affection and a “push present” would be a welcome token at a time when a woman is facing the reality that she is extremely vulnerable and dependent on her husband. Such token would be emotionally reaffirming. Assuming you haven’t married a bimbo or gold digger, find out what she wants and why. Possible her girlfriends all got diamond bracelets in which case she wants to hold her head up among her social set. Unfathomable to us, but necessary to her. Maybe something to help with the baby a la the aforementioned giant chair. Ask some probing questions in a sensitive way, find out what she wants, and get her something that will shut her up, err, make her happy.
Some men tend to look at gifts as a quid pro quo; this is probably not the time for that.
I watched my evil sisters-in-law nudzhing their husbands for jewelry; when I saw how expensive the stuff was, I spent some time and learned to make it myself, which is way easier than it appears. Twenty dollars worth of polished rocks and findings go for hundreds of dollars at expensive stores, and serve as a reminder for a much longer time than flowers. Plus it honks off my brothers-in-law, always a good thing.
I love my wife and respect women, but they are different in some ways than men. Ook, ook. Scratch.
