Gifts Celebrating your Single Parent
Being a single parent is as tough as it is rewarding. If a single parent raised you, and you want to show them how much you appreciate all they’ve done for you, here are a few gift ideas to help you achieve that:
Memory Book or Scrapbook
If your mum loves photo albums or if she is just a little sentimental, then giving her a Mother’s Day gift book might be a unique and exciting choice of a gift. In fact, this type of gift works for other occasions, too. You can fill your scrapbook with photos, memories, and other memorabilia capturing special moments, such as birthdays, holidays, and special milestones. It will make a lovely keepsake.
Memory books are sentimental gifts, so you could fill them not only with fond memories but also things you have done and achieved either alone or together. Your mum will love looking back on all the things you’ve done together as well as the things that she helped you achieve.
Family Recipe Book
If your mum or dad loves to cook, you should consider compiling a family recipe book filled with your family’s favourite dishes. Do your research and collate recipes from your wider family and write down the story behind each recipe. A recipe book should not just be about the meals your family loves but also about memories and traditions. The recipes’ stories might go back generations, so be sure to talk to all family members to find out as many titbits as possible. Make sure to add any funny anecdotes, photos, or drawings to each recipe to liven up the book and make it more personal. If you don’t know where to start check out templates online for inspiration.
A family recipe book is a gift that is not only meaningful and relevant, but also incredibly useful. It won’t end up gathering dust on a shelf but will be used and referred to over and over again.
Personalized Garden Gift
Items for the garden can make great and thoughtful gifts for a single parent who is into gardening. This could be an ornament, such as a small sculpture, spinner, or pixie, or something more useful like a bird feeder or water feature. It could even be as simple as a hand painted garden stone. If you want to make sure your items are useful, get an engraved garden trunk or a set of personalised garden tools. For a plant gift, check if there is a rose or other flower that bears your parent’s name to make the gift more personal. In case your mum or dad does not have a garden but loves flowers all the same, consider a flower subscription.
The choice of garden gift is endless – just go to your local garden centre for inspiration and bear in mind the style of your parent’s garden. Is it a cottage garden, a contemporary garden, or maybe a Japanese style garden? There are garden gifts for every taste and budget.
A Gift Experience
Gift experiences are a great way of showing how much you appreciate your single parent! Whatever your mum or dad’s interest, you are sure to find an experience that is perfect for them. Take your mum for a posh afternoon tea or dinner at the Shard, or give her a voucher to visit a luxurious spa with her friend. Your dad might prefer a driving experience or a stadium tour. Whatever you choose, the thought you put into that gift will mean everything to them.
Holiday Accessories
Does your mum or dad enjoy holidays? There are lots of handy holiday accessories you could get them, such as a travel pillow, a funky travel mug, personalised luggage labels, a travel journal, washbag, portable charger, headphones, a travel holdall or a suitcase, a sleep mask – to name but a few! For an active parent who enjoys sporty holidays, you could push the boat out and get them a GoPro for their next ski, cycling or hiking trip, professional badminton shoes, or an underwater camera for that diving or snorkelling adventure.
If your single parent enjoys solo holidays check out these nifty travel accessories, which make both useful and thoughtful gifts as they are aimed at ensuring a solo traveller’s personal safety: a mini-first aid kid, a backpack protector (to put off pickpockets), an anti-theft travel bag, belt bag, an alarm (ideally with a flashlight and keyring), or a piece of clothing with hidden pockets. The choice is endless, and we are sure your parent appreciates that you put a lot of thought into ensuring they stay safe when travelling solo.
Personalized Jewellery
Everyone is different, so where one parent loves gardening, another might love jewellery. If your mum loves a bit of bling, she would surely appreciate personalized jewellery! Get her a ring, bracelet, or necklace that you personalized for them, either by picking their favourite precious stones or with a design that you think she might like.
If your mum is not into all things sparkly but prefers vintage style jewellery, she might appreciate a locket with her initials on and a family photo inside. It’s certainly an unusual and sentimental gift and the thought will be appreciated.
Digital Photo Frame
A digital photo frame that cycles through photos from an SD card is a fabulous present, especially if you go to the effort of loading the SD card with photos personal to the two of you, such as happy childhood memories, milestones, or family snaps of the two of you. It is a wonderful gift to honour and celebrate your single parent whilst sharing precious memories. It’s also a great gift for a single parent that loves travelling and doesn’t know what do to with holiday photos as it takes away the need of creating a photo album.
There are many designs on the market, so pick something that suits the style of your parent’s home. There are also the technical features to consider, such as internal storage and Wi-Fi connectivity in case your parent might want to connect the device to their cloud storage.
Conclusion
We hope that our little collection of gift ideas for the single parent in your life has given you some inspiration. Regardless of the occasion, these sentimental gifts show how much you appreciate them, and how much you honour and celebrate their presence in your life.
About the author:
Single Parents on Holiday organise group holidays exclusively for single parents and their children including beach, farm, and activity holidays, and city trips. In addition, they provide ski holidays with teenagers and kids for single parent families and ski trips for solo travellers looking for adult company on holiday.
