Practical gifts for fussy fathers

Father’s Day gifts. Always a tough one, isn’t it? Do you go with the age-old tried and tested bottle of posh beer? Do you ramp it up a notch with a voucher for a “dad experience”? Or do you choose to ignore the day altogether and opt for an ostrich approach?

For us, Father’s Day this year is going to be a big deal. Not that the NLM has declared it so, but because I think, more than ever, he deserves it. As a secondary school teacher leading a department this is always his busiest and most stressful time of the year. Exams, coursework, piles and piles and piles of paperwork… he is stretched to his limit. Yet he still mucks in 50/50 with everything house, kid and parenting related and manages, most days, to do it all with a resigned grin of exhaustion. Oh, and he also makes me laugh. All the time. So I think he deserves a bit of celebration.

This year I’ve been looking at practical Father’s Day gifts, rather than the usual gift bought in haste on the family food shop at the local supermarket. I want to get him something he’ll actually use – something that will last longer than the 2 minutes he could down bottle of beer in after a particularly stressful week. But I still want there to be an element of luxury (a present is a bit boring if it’s something you’d buy for yourself anyway, after all). So here are my useful and luxuriously practical present ideas for dads, inspired by a browse around Amara…

First up, it’s a pair of posh slippers. There’s something rather indulgent about a fancy pair of slippers don’t you think? My own slippers are beloved Uggs and they’ve lasted me for YEARS, so I know the NLM would be over the moon with his very own pair. Not to be used to take the bins out, obviously…

Next, it’s a beautiful new case for the iPad. This is something I know he’d love, seeing as his current iPad case is a scuffed faux leather version with frayed edges and a suspect ketchup stain left-over from a toddler tantrum. This one is actually a laptop cover but could easily work for his iPad too. Double points. Maybe I’ll steal it for my laptop… Did I say that out loud?

My man is a beardy one and, since he’s got no hair on his actual head these days, often secretly enjoys a bit of a beard pamper session. This beard grooming kit has everything he’d need to turn his beard into a dapper gentlemen’s thing of beauty. (NOTE: if he read that last sentence he’d laugh at me “Ruddy ‘ell – ‘dapper gentman’? You loser!”).

I also found this cool wooden iPhone 7 case on Amara. It would stop his iPhone getting any more scuffs and scratches, plus I know he’d like how unique it is.

And finally, because I am SO over tidying up random cables and chargers strewn around our shared office space, I love this wash bag which doubles up as a cable tidy bag. Talk about practical – on holiday it would mean all his bottles and smellies are kept together and at home it means no more lost chargers. Double win.

I’m not suggesting the NLM is going to get this whole bounty of presents for Father’s Day, but I know he’d be super chuffed with even one of these, a lie-in and a roast dinner at our local pub, accompanied (obviously) with the obligatory handmade Father’s Day cards from the girls.

What are your plans for Father’s Day this year?

 

 

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Thanks to Amara for working with me on this post. For more information about how I work with brands check out my Work With Me page.