Raising little ones takes a special kind of energy. It also take a ton of time and money. With that in mind, I’ve come up with some fabulous gift ideas for parents with young children.

Most of these gift ideas for parents fit into at least one of these categories:

• Something to make life easier.
• Something to make memories.
• Something they might not have the money to buy for themselves.
• Something that won’t add to the clutter and chaos of their home.

12 Gift Ideas for Parents with Young Children

1) Date Night – A restaurant gift card along with free babysitting is a dream come true! One year my in-laws gave us monthly date nights for an entire year. It was extremely generous of them and very much appreciated.

2) Babysitting – Vouchers for free babysitting is a great gift. They can cash them in without feeling guilty for asking you to watch their kids. Am I the only one who hates to ask people to babysit? My sister-in-law gave me 10 hours of babysitting for my birthday when I was working on my book. It was a huge blessing.

3) Gift cards for Local Restaurants – Special date night gift cards are one thing, but a gift card to the local pizza shop down the street is going to be a huge stress reliever on those nights when the house is trashed, the kids are crying, and you can’t possibly make supper without losing your mind.

4) Freezer Meals – I love it when I don’t have to cook and I can pull out a freezer meal. Here are some of my favorites:

• Pizza Tot Casserole
• Creamy Baked Chicken
• Taco Soup
• Curried Lentils
• Honey Mustard Baked Chicken
• Garlic White Lasagna
• 5 more freezer friendly recipes

4) Family Photo Shoot – Even if you aren’t a professional photographer, you can bless someone with some family photos or you could hire a photographer for them.

5) Amazon Gift Card – You can buy just about anything on Amazon (affiliate link). It is my favorite place to buy diapers, but they could also cash it in on a fun splurge for themselves.

6) Lowes or Home Depot Gift Card – If they own their home, then chances are there are some home improvement projects they would love to tackle.

7) Cash for Christmas Decorations – Younger families probably don’t have many Christmas decorations, but they might not have the extra funds to invest in some. I don’t recommend buying the decorations yourself unless you are 100% confident you know their style preferences.

8) Cleaning Services – After Noah was born, my mother-in-law gave me money to use to hire a cleaning service. For 6 months someone came into my home, scrubbed my bathrooms and cleaned all my floors. It was heavenly. Even families that have a parent home full time can appreciate this gift. Although it might be tempting to offer to clean their house yourself, I appreciated the fact that it was a stranger. There was less pressure to clean before the cleaning lady came.

9) Gift Cards for Online Photo Shops – I have tons of pictures that I haven’t printed and even more photo books that I still haven’t created. A gift card to Snapfish, Shutterfly, or another online photo shop is like an investment in their scrapbook. Just make sure you know which shop they are already using since transferring photos would be a pain.

10) Family Fun Experiences – Tickets to the zoo, movies, local theater, science museum, amusement park, or water park are great for building memories as a family. You could go along or just provide the tickets.

11) Cash – It isn’t fun and flashy, but it always everyone’s favorite!

12) Some Really Good Coffee – Enough said, right? Here is some fair trade, organic coffee on Amazon (affiliate link).

Are you a parent of young children? What is at the top of your Christmas wish list?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Simply Rebekah!