Two Gift-Shopping Tips To Follow When Buying Something for Your Mother Who’s in a Nursing Home

If your mother is in a nursing home and you want to treat her to something nice, here are some shopping tips to follow when selecting her gift.

Look for gift hampers for her that feature a variety of small gifts

If you cannot think of one large or expensive item that your mother would like, then a gift hamper might be the best item to get for her. However, rather than getting a gift hamper that's filled solely with food items or with toiletries, it might be best to get her one that has a variety of small gifts. The reason for this is that whilst they're usually taken great care of, nursing home residents often don't receive too many special treats or luxury items on a daily basis and so your mother might appreciate a range of little gifts that make each aspect of her daily life in this setting a bit nicer.

For example, you could have a personalised gift hamper for her that includes a few scented handsoaps for her bathroom, some herbal teas if she likes a nightly cup of tea before bed, as well as a small puzzle book to keep her mind occupied during quiet periods of her day, and a box of chocolates that she can share with the other nursing home residents or nurses with whom she is friends. In combination with, for example, a bouquet of fresh flowers for her room, these gift hamper treats could make the next week or so of her time in the nursing home particularly enjoyable.

Try to choose items that your mother can easily open

By the time they've reached the age where they need to live in a nursing home, most people have at least a few age-related issues, such as weaker muscles and stiff joints, which can affect their dexterity. If this is the case for your mother, you should try to ensure that her hamper's contents are things that she'll be able to easily open. This is particularly important if you don't live near the nursing home and need to have the gift hampered delivered to it, as you'll want to make sure that she can easily open its contents without having to wait until one of the facility's nurses can help her.

For example, if you want the hamper to include your mother's favourite perfume, it might be best to include the rollerball version of this perfume, which is lightweight and which your mother can apply to her wrists without having to make the pushing motion with her fingers that she would need to if the perfume came in a spray bottle. Likewise, if you want to put some herbal teas in the hamper, it might be better to include one box of loose leaf tea, that she only has to open once, rather than individual sachets that your mother might struggle to tear open every night when she wants to have a cup of tea.

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