Motherhood Maternity Giftcard Giveaway
I'm in a contesty mood these days. What can I say? I love giveaways. You know what else I love? Babies. And pregnancy. And birth. I even love (gasp) baby showers! I don't know if it's the excitement or the desserts or the games or the desserts but I just love baby showers. I loved my own and I love other people's too. I'm a freak that way.
Have you ever been to a baby shower where the mother to be opened up a gift so hideous or weird or creepy or inappropriate that it made you marvel at how she could keep the smile plastered to her face as she ooohed and aaaahed over how cute it was? I was once at a baby shower where the mother to be opened a box and inside was a handmade clown that looked like it was crafted out of yarn and nightmares. I muffled my screams and tried to look away from the clowns gaping maw of rainbow colored death but the mother to be was a great sport. She smiled and thanked the maker over and over for her gift. She handled it perfectly. Although later, when the mother to be and I were in the room alone she gestured to the clown and said "I'm burning that thing as soon as I get home. I don't want it coming after me when I sleep."
I wonder what it is about me that let's people know that they can confess to me all their true feeling about the bad gifts they get? I don't exactly understand the magical powers I have but now I want to work those powers on you. It's your turn to tell me about a really bad gift you got at a baby shower. Or about a really bad gift you saw someone else get at a baby shower. Or about about a rotten birthday present you got. Heck, you can even tell me about a really terrible present you once gave someone. I don't want to be picky here, I just want to hear about a bad gift. I'll post some of my favorites in another post. (Because I love my readers and I want to share their wit with everyone!)
Out of everyone that comments (with a story about a bad gift!) I'll pick one entry at random to win a $25 Destination Maternity gift card. Win this card and you can pick out something cute and non-creepy to give as a gift the next time to you to a baby shower. Or win it and sell it on ebay. Whatever floats your boat. This contest will run through July 9th. You can earn yourself an extra entry by linking to this contest on your own blog. (Don't worry about letting me know if you've linked to me. I'll already know. I'm magic. And I use Technorati.)
I can't wait to hear your stories!
Jen
23 comments:
This sounds like a grea giveaway.. i totally need non-creepy stuff for all the rug rats around me and the ones on the way!
What a great idea! I am no longer in need of baby stuff...but I have a ton of friends who do!
Let's see. I don't really have a great horrible gift story.
I have a few bad gift stories. sadly most involve my MIL. She's a real knick-knacky person, I'm really really not, so there have been a few issues there (how was I to know that the cute little baby doll thing was a knock off and not the real Anne Geddes and therefore not worthy of a spot on the shelf? But she was very nice about it.)
Ah well, in-laws what can you do?
I am pregnant, I could use some things for sure!
My grandparents used to send us a big tin of multi-flavored popcorn every year for Christmas. One year, in the box along with the popcorn tin, was a bag of potato chips. An unlabeled, plain brown wax paper bag of greasy potato chips. I'm not sure if it got in the box by mistake or what, but it became a joke gift that was passed around to a couple of other family members thereafter.
Great contest!!
When I was first dating Mike, my first husband (nifty way to keep track of em, by number, right?) he drank like a POT of coffee every morning. I didn't then and don't now drink coffee with any regularity ergo, no coffee for him in the morning, right?
Except that my parents, who drink coffee day in and day out, thought this was absolutely an unimaginable indignity and therefore GAVE ME A COFFEEMAKER FOR MMMMMYYYY BIRTHDAY .
Because I was literally a child then (under 18 but moved out of my parents house) and majoring in immaturity, when we moved in together shortly thereafter, I told him to clean it up and when he didn't, I threw it away. Whole thing, in the trash. Which was GREAT because his birthday was the next month and guess what he got? An even better coffeemaker from my parents.
Grrrrrr not that I'm still bitter or anything 17 or 18 years later.
I was at a baby shower recently and the Mom-to-Be Mother gave her the old, used breast pump that she used when the daughter was a baby. I went to the ladies room because I choked when I thought about this old woman breastfeeding with that old, faded, contraption. I was surprised she would 1) Keep it all of these years 2) Give it to her daughter to use/have when she could just purchase a modern pump. Everyone oohhhed and ahhhh'd over it like it was a cute teddy bear.
Every year at work we have a Chinese auction type swap. Well, I'd given a really good gift, one that everyone wanted and the swapping was going on full force. It was lots of fun, but I had to go to a dr. appt. and my number hadn't come up yet. I entrusted a coworker to play for me...big mistake. The next day I showed up at work and there was my package... it was round like a Christmas ball but covered in brown fur and feathers and had a funky odor. I to this day do not know what it was. And apparently no one else did either, which is why I got stuck with the booby prize. I didn't even bother to bring it home, just tossed it into the waste basket at work... and now I don't play the Chinese auction at the party unless I am gonna be there! lol.
My grandmother used to sell Avon so my cousins & I (all aged 12 & under) always got an assortment of leftover Avon inventory for Christmas. One year the boys all got deodorant and cologne, and the girls all got smelly lotion and lipsticks in very odd shades.
Every year for my birthday, I get cheap,Dollar General lingerie. FROM MY MOTHER IN LAW. She thinks its a cute way to give a gift to both my husband and I at the same time.
I actually have to share my most horrifying wedding present. It was a paper-towel holder.
You are thinking: That's not so bad. What kind of an ingrate are you, Laggin!
Ah, but the giver was a crafty woman (as in, a woman that does crafts). And she had added a soft-sculpture granny to this particular paper towel holder. Granny was wearing a white-lace adorned, brown calico dress and matching mop cap. She had wire-rim glasses and a pretty, soft pink smile. Her arms spread wide and her little soft sculpure hands held the sides of the middle roller bar.
Lovely, no?
Here's the kicker. When you actually put a roll of papertowels on the bar? And rolled it? Her bosom would heave up and down.
Yup. It was just plain wrong.
I think I gave it away as a gag gift at some point in time so I can't grace you with a picture. (And thank goodness for small favors because that was 19 years ago this month!)
I usually lurk but thought I would chime in for this one. I'm pregnant with my first and my comment is about holiday gifts.
It's two gifts, from the same person about 6-7 years apart. My father had a sister some 15 years his senior who didn't know quite how to relate to kids, but she sent us Christmas presents every year.
When I was 8 or 9, my Christmas present that year was two pairs of underwear. One plain high-cut cotton pair and a string bikini covered in lace with minimal front or back coverage. My mother took them away and I never saw them again until I found them in a box when I was in high school. They fit by then!
Then when I was a freshman in high school, I got a "My 'lil sewing machine", a little girl's first sewing machine, battery powered, and pink all over.
I was never sure if it was her age or that she just didn't understand age appropriate gifts.
On my first Valentine's Day with my now-husband, after he read through about 30 little hearts I had cut out and written things I loved about him on, he took me out to his car. He was clearly excited about his present, so I had thoughts of two suitcases packed and a romantic getaway. But when we got there, he popped the trunk and there was...a camping chair. Not a bad present, but for a first Valentine's Day, back in the dating days when Valentine's Day is kind of special? He also wrapped up anti-fungal cream and gave it to me for Christmas one year with a bow on top. And I had no fungus! It was precautionary anti-fungal cream! (??)
Jen, I don't think you should give me the prize even if I have the best or worst gift, because I am your MIL......and I don't want your contest to appear to be fixed... But I just have to share these two gifts with you and your readers~~ My ex-husband gave me a three burner camping stove for Christmas one year, and I hate camping!....More recently, my parents gave me a toilet seat..granted it was a really nice acrylic one with shells and seaweed imbended in it and it cost $70, but a toilet lid is supposed to cover the bowl so you don't have to look into it.. this one was clear, so it didn't cover up anything.... (and it is rather hideous) It is tucked away in my closet.... I think it is the one thing that I will save for you and Jesse to dispose of when I move to the other side of existence and hopefully will not have need of a toilet seat!!
Judy
For my wedding to Teddy Bear my mother got us all (my son included) $5 gift cards to a frozen yogurt place. She spent $15 and the one nearest us that accepts gift cards is 40 miles away. What kind of message does that send? I am still not sure.
Oh, an even better one I just remember. For mother's day this year my mom had her wedding band and my late father's wedding band turned into earrings for me. My father had possession of them until he died (they were divorced LONG ago) and I gave them to my mom when I found them out of the kindness of my heart. So now I have a pair of "hoop" earrings made out of their wedding bands. Did I mention that they wore wildly different sizes and they look like shit and the rings are essentially ruined? Yeah. My mom is swell.
Ohhh good one! When I was dating an ex boyfriend-he invited me to his parents for Christmas. Where he -in front of his family, gave me the gift he bought me.
Oh no-he couldn't bother to wrap it...it came in a single brown crinkled grocery bag. Before you read on-know that this guy was NOT poor...
Inside said bag-was a used copy of "Dianetics" and a wall calendar. OK, I tried to appreciate the calendar....till I turned it over and saw the stamp on the back of it..."Complements of your AVON Representative."
A used book I wasn't iinterested in, and a free calendar...in a brown bag.
His mother gave me this nicely wrapped little box. In it was cash. Dollar bills....she asked me to count them in front of the family.
It was 4.00 cash. RANDOM......
uhhh--THANKS.
My now ex-husband gave me the worst birthday present ever, 2 years ago.... being: NOTHING!!!
The a$$hole completely forgot my birthday! No congrats the whole day... zip!
He chose to come home late from work that evening... I went to sleep early that nite, pissed.
Next morning still no comments..
I called his office and asked if they had calenders over there. He then said: Oh it's your birthday today!!! Ummmm no that was yesterday.
The present I eventually received weeks later: a tape to hook up my iPod in the car. Woooooow that must have set him back big time. Damn!
This story is about a bad baby shower gift that I personally received. My baby shower was actually scheduled three weeks before the baby was due, but I was induced early so needless to say I got out of the hospital the day before the shower.
Anyway.... my mom's boyfriend built up how great his present was and he had been working on it for weeks in the garage, I was pretty stoked because handmade gifts are usually some of the best.
HE GAVE MY 6.8 oz BABY GIRL a "garage blanket" which basically was a receiving blanket that he had used to wipe up spills, and clean off tools for the two months leading up to my daughters arrival. It's humorous and not... my husband owned a race car when we met so I kind of get it, but then again... not really!
not trying to get an extra entry here, but forgot my bad gift story! my ex forgot my birthday. so i told him. he forgot again. when he finally bought me something it was a tin-tin comic book! glad i married someone else!
OK, I don't want anything, but you know what my ex gave me for my birthday one year??
Cookie sheets. Yup, so you know what I did? I divorced his ass. He kept them in the divorce.
One year my grandmother gave me a mini flashlight for my birthday. And that was it! Who wants a mini flashlight? surely not me!
hmmmm....i didn't get any really bad shower gifts, unless you count a "surprise shower" hosted at MY HOUSE by a well meaning sister in law...yeah...8 1/2 months pregnant and I figured out the "secret"...yup...had to clean up before the party AND after...it was horrible...i was pissed and my house was thrashed. thanks for hosting this giveaway!
This sounds like a great giveaway.
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