I pride myself on always coming up with the perfect gift for my friends and family. You know the kind; the gift that out shines all the others, the gift that proves just how well I really know the recipient and shows how gosh darn thoughtful I am!   Everyone that is, except for my husband. The poor man ends up with *winces with the cliché of it all* electrical store gift cards or, on more recent occasions, nothing at all (but you said you didn’t want anything!) I start to get nervous around this time of year. What with Father’s Day on September 4th, his birthday in October and then Christmas, I have three gifts in quick succession to come up with; each better than the other! The pressure is enough to make me want to run off to Mexico until January!

 

Dragging a curious toddler around shopping centres is my idea of torture, so I inevitably turn to online retailers, more often than not in the wee small hours when I cannot be trusted to use good judgement, to do all my gift shopping. Type in 'father’s day gift ideas’ into any online browser and you’ll soon be scrolling through page after page of such ‘manly’ gifts like car magazine subscriptions, endless liquor promotional packs, electrical devices ranging from amazing to confounding, and ‘everything you ever wanted to know about BBQ’s’! Giving my spouse any kind of hardware is the equivalent of him giving me a kitchen appliance for my birthday; marital suicide! I have no interest in receiving socks and underpants or the ritual pair of old man pyjamas every year, so why should my chosen mate suffer the generic, geriatric choices that the internet says he should?

 

 

 

Put down that strange magnetic desk ornament! 

 

Step away from the office sized mini golf or Zen Garden! Put those BBQ tongs back on the shelf, and for goodness sake, do not even consider picking up that boxed three pack of hankies!   

 

Here’s our guide for choosing a Fathers Day gifts that will leave him speechless…….for all the right reasons!

 

 

Get the Adrenalin Racing: if you plan on splurging this year, there are literally hundreds of ‘experiences’ you can purchase for your love. www.redballoon.com.au is filled with an extensive selection of gifts ranging from helicopter rides, hot laps in rally cars, flight simulators and skydiving. 

 

Calm the Adrenalin Down: In 2011, real men do in fact eat quiche and more than likely enjoy a little ‘man-scaping’ in their free time. If the father of your children is under enough stress at work, or at home with the kids (OK, resisting the urge to play a little ‘who’s the most stressed?’ contest here!), why not book him in for a little ‘me’ time? Come to think of it, book in for a couples massage and you’ve managed to sneak some relaxation for yourself in there too!

 

 

Leave it all up to the kids! It is Father’s Day after all! There’s something incredibly moving about unwrapping a little crooked clay vase or greeting card decorated by a clumsy toddler. Show me a suit wearing father proudly wearing the paper hand painted tie made by his 4 year old, to his high power office job, and I’ll show you a man who loves his kids! www.kidspot.com.au offers some great craft projects, simple recipes, tear jerking Daddy poetry and a gift guide to help you choose the right pressie.

 

We’re All in This Together: Better than any gift and the most important thing you can do on Father’s Day is to spend it together. Even if you do nothing more than stay at home, eat breakfast together, maybe watch a movie or take the bikes out for a ride, you will have given him a priceless memory. Make the effort to be completely ‘present’ as a family, and not let the distractions of life interfere. It could be a great day to have a mini media blackout; no TV, internet or iphones allowed. In years to come, it won’t be the material gifts that matter, that’s just stuff. In this busy world we live in, sometimes the best gift you can give is your time.