When They’re Not at Home!

I’m someone who’s always gone all out to celebrate my girls’ birthdays. Even if the b-day was on a school night, I’d have balloons blown up the night before to dump on them as soon as they woke up. And I’d decorate with streamers in their rooms while they were sleeping, so they would wake up to an extravaganza! We always planned the coolest birthday parties when they were little too. So, needless to say, I miss it! It was mine and my middle-daughter’s birthdays recently, and here are some things I did to make it special even if I couldn’t be there on the day.

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Send a blast from the past! I love to be the first one to text them the morning of their birthdays, and I send a little photo of when they were small on their birthday then. Here’s what I sent her, with some cute emojis. 🙂

Her Amazon list. She shared her list (of mostly hair and skin products) with me and I sent it along directly to her address. It’s cute because Amazon will ask if it’s a gift, and if so, you can include wrapping, notes, and the gift receipts. They may need to return something for some reason, so this is super convenient. She shared the gift note with me because she thought it was cute. 

If she doesn’t have a list already, make up your own list of ideas! Treats, hair and skin supplies, and/or things for the apartment/dorm room. Or order something you know she wants and send it directly to her. I’ll be doing a post soon on ideas for care packages for kids, stay tuned!

Money. Even if you’re sending a gift directly to their address, we always send cards and $. They love to get mail and money! My husband always sends the girls $10x their birthday number, so she received $230 from him this year. You cannot underestimate the importance of cash when they’re 18+ years.  My mother (rest her soul), actually gave all her grandchildren $100x their birthday age every year, which was deposited into a college fund. If you can afford to do this, it’s a WONDERFUL gift- all my daughters had a much easier time paying for school. Doing it incrementally this way is much more affordable, and it grows over time into a fairly sizable gift that helps everyone SO much later. Just a thought. 

Plan to do something in person when you can. It gives everyone something to look forward to. If your locations are not too far apart, you can meet for a fancy dinner. Bring her some flowers as a nice touch to brighten her living space and remind her of you. Or plan something very cool and special. For my oldest daughter’s birthday one year, we met at a museum in the city to see a Disney exhibit she was interested in! A short walk from there to a terrific dinner, made for a special day for her.

For my birthday a couple weeks ago, my daughters, husband and I went to the World Spa in Brooklyn, NY.

Look this up if you’re interested, worldspa.com, because what I would say about it will NOT do it justice. It’s a bit expensive, but special occasions call for something special, in our opinion. You also get your money’s worth, because you can spend all day or up to four hours there with access to everything. AMAZING. Steam rooms, saunas, pools and cold plunges, and fresh smoothies at their cafe. So much to experience, and by the time we left, we were starving! What better place to stop than a New Jersey diner!

When you do see them in person, use cash to surprise them in clever ways! If you haven’t seen this surprise gift box, it’s a group of boxes with springs set up inside each other. You fill each of the boxes with small bills ($1, $5) and push them together. Wrap this just like any present, and when they open it, SURPRISE! The money flies all over the place like confetti. You should have seen my daughter’s face! I’ve also filled up a mason jar with M&Ms and put a toilet paper roll in the middle of the jar. Then I put some $20s rolled up inside.  It’s sort of like, ‘Oh, these M&Ms are cute!’, and then, ‘OH!! Thank you for the money!’

Get personalized M&Ms like this!

Personalized M&Ms like the one above can be purchased on the M&Ms website. For more clever gifts for adult children, check out my blog post 10 Incredibly FUN Gifts Your Adult Children Will LOVE!

I hope you have wonderful celebrations with your children, when they’re around or away! Let me know what fun birthday ideas you have!