Let me tell you what the busy woman on your holiday shopping list does not need. She does not need a scarf or gloves or something else to junk up her already messy closet. What she needs is for someone to take care of things for her, to do a good job and not have to lean on her too much while doing it. After all, if she has to guide you through the entire process, it’s not much of a gift, is it?
So here are some gift ideas for the busy woman (or more likely, women) in your life:
- Run general errands for her. You might offer to take her kids to ballet and soccer for a month. You could pick up and drop off her dry cleaning. Or if you’re really ambitious, tackle her grocery shopping.
- If you treat her to a massage or other personal service, take care of everything, including scheduling the appointment and the tip.
- Offer to plan and book travel arrangements or a family vacation for her (but only if you’re an experienced traveler yourself).
- If you have any organizational abilities, offer to tackle her most dreaded clean-out chore. This might be the front hall closet, the kids’ rooms or the basement, so be ready for anything.
- Offer to babysit, possibly for a day or entire weekend, and schedule a date ASAP after you give the gift.
- Take her car to the shop, oil change, tire change. Or heck, even volunteer to take it to the gas station for a month. I hate filling up with gas.
- Buy her some time with a virtual assistant. If you’re not familiar with the VA concept, these are folks who will do administrative or other functions, but all communication is usually via email or the phone. A VA could help your busy woman deal with her (next year’s) holiday cards, help her plan an event, or deal with financial details
- Schedule and pay for a once-a-month house cleaner. Some women are funny about having other people clean for them (I am NOT one of them), so make sure you know how your busy woman will feel about this. If she’ll offended by this gift, of course, scratch it off your list.
- Serve as her meal planner. This would definitely take some extended work, but believe me, I feel homicidal when I ask my guys what they want for dinners in the upcoming week and they look at me like they’ve never heard of the concept. Dinner, what’s dinner? You might offer to sit down with her and plan out a month’s worth of meals, with grocery lists included. Or you might plan several one-week-only schedules so she could pick and choose week by week.
[Thanks to Jamie Farrell for the last two suggestions on the list. Believe me, Jamie–as a military spouse and mother of (almost) three–knows what it’s like to be a busy woman!]
I know many of you are uber-duber-busy women yourself, what do you wish someone would give you this holiday season? And by the way, feel free to print out this post, highlight and underline items and leave it where your loved ones can see it!
—
Today is International Mountain Day and sometimes that’s exactly what a busy woman’s life feels like—climbing K2. So think about what you can do to make that climb just a little easier. (Hint: canisters of oxygen probably aren’t the answer.)
