1. What was your childhood home like and what do you miss most about it?

Not just the physical description. What did it smell like? What sounds did you fall asleep to? Where did you feel safest? This question almost always opens a door that stays open. Your mum may have never been asked to describe her childhood home in detail, and the memories that come with it are often vivid, warm, and full of details she didn't know she still carried.

2. What was your relationship with your own mum like?

This one takes courage to ask — and courage to answer. But it's one of the most revealing questions you can put to a parent. Understanding your mum's relationship with her mother gives you context for everything: her parenting style, her wounds, her strengths, the things she did differently on purpose and the things she didn't realise she was repeating. It's a question that connects three generations in a single conversation.

3. What did you want to be when you were young and what happened?

Dreams redirected, ambitions set aside, paths not taken. Most women of your mum's generation quietly folded their own aspirations around the expectations of family, marriage, and circumstance. This question gives her permission to talk about the version of herself she might have become — and often reveals something tender and surprising. Listen carefully to what she says, and what she doesn't.

4. What was the hardest period of your life and how did you get through it?

Every life has them. The years that were genuinely hard with loss, heartbreak, financial pressure, health, loneliness. Your mum may have protected you from knowing the full weight of what she carried. This question asks her to share it, and in doing so, to share the resilience that got her through. The answer is almost always more honest and more moving than you expect.

5. What do you know now that you wish you'd known at 25?

This is the question that produces wisdom you can actually use. Not abstract life advice but specific, earned, personal insight from someone who has lived four or five decades past the age you were figuring everything out. Write down what she says. Seriously, write it down. These are the sentences people wish they'd recorded.

6. What has been the greatest love of your life?

It might be your dad. It might be a person before your dad. It might be a place, a creative pursuit, a calling she gave up, or the act of raising you. Ask it openly and let her answer in whatever direction she chooses. This question tells you what your mum values most at her core which is something adult children often don't fully know, even after a lifetime together.

7. What are you most proud of, not as a mum, but as a person?

The "not as a mum" part is important. Mothers are so often defined entirely by their role as parents that they lose sight of, or never get asked about their own achievements, identity, and sense of self. This question gives your mum permission to be proud of something that belongs only to her. It's a question that often produces a long pause followed by an answer that surprises you both.

8. Is there anything you've always wanted to say to me but haven't?

This one is brave. Not every mum will take the opening, some will laugh it off, some will deflect, some will say "nothing, darling, everything's fine." But some will use it. And when they do, it tends to be one of the most important conversations you've ever had. Ask it gently. Hold space for whatever comes.

9. What do you hope people remember about you?

Legacy. How your mum thinks about her own legacy what she wants to leave behind, what she hopes the people she loves will carry forward is a window into everything she believes about her own life. It's also a question that lets her know, without you having to say it directly, that her life has mattered deeply to you and that you want to hold onto it.

10. What story from your life do you most want me to remember?

End here. After all the other questions, after an hour or two of talking in a way you maybe haven't in years, ask her this. One story. The one she'd choose if she could only choose one. The answer will stay with you for the rest of your life.

The Best Baby Shower Gifts for Book-Loving Parents

Sandra
May 31
5 min read

You've been invited to a baby shower. You want to give something genuinely good.

Not another set of tiny onesies. Not a scented candle with a punny name. Not the fifth nappy bag to arrive on the day. You want to give something that says I actually thought about this, something that reflects who these parents are and what they'll actually love.

If the parents-to-be are readers, book lovers, or people who value words and stories, you are in luck. Because the best gifts for that kind of person aren't just beautiful, they're meaningful in a way that lasts long after the wrapping paper is gone.

Here's a curated list of the best baby shower gifts for book-loving parents in Australia this year. From the practical to the deeply sentimental, there's something here for every budget.

First, a word on what book-loving parents actually want

Book people tend to be thoughtful, intentional, and a little allergic to clutter. They'd rather have one beautiful, meaningful thing than a basket of ten forgettable ones. They appreciate good design, good writing and gifts that come with a story behind them.

They're also about to enter a season of their life that will be in equal measure overwhelming, joyful, exhausting, and so fast it takes your breath away. The best gift you can give them is something that helps them slow down and hold onto it.

The Gift List

1. A classic picture book collection curated with love

Every book-loving parent has opinions about children's literature. The gift of a small, curated collection of picture books — chosen thoughtfully rather than grabbed off a supermarket shelf — is always well received.

What to include: The Velveteen Rabbit, Where the Wild Things Are, Guess How Much I Love You, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon. Add a handwritten note about why you chose each one.

Budget: AU$60–120 depending on titles

2. A beautiful illustrated atlas or nature encyclopedia

For parents who love design and discovery, a large-format illustrated book, a world atlas for children, a nature encyclopedia, a beautifully designed alphabet book — makes a stunning shelf piece that grows with the child. These become beloved objects in a way that mass-market books rarely do.

Look for: The Wonders of Nature by Ben Hoare, Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska, or anything from the Usborne illustrated range.

Budget: AU$35–60

3. A bookshelf subscription: books delivered monthly

Give the gift that keeps arriving. Several Australian services deliver age-appropriate books to children on a monthly basis. The parents choose nothing, a beautifully selected book just arrives. For a new parent who will have very little mental energy to browse for books in those early months, this is genuinely useful as well as joyful.

Australian options: Little Page Turners, The Kids' Bookshelf, or a gift subscription through Readings or Booktopia.

Budget: AU$30–50/month, or buy 3–6 months upfront as a gift

4. A reading chair, the splurge option

If you're buying as a group and budget allows, a beautiful nursing or reading chair is the kind of gift a book-loving parent will use every single day for years. The number of hours a new parent spends sitting and feeding and reading in those early months is extraordinary, a quality chair makes all of it better.

Budget: AU$400–900 (perfect for a group gift)

5. A personalised children's book

Several Australian and international services create personalised picture books with the child's name woven into the story. For book-loving parents, the novelty of seeing their child's name in print even before they can read, is genuinely delightful.

Australian options: Wonderbly (ships to Australia), Lost My Name, or I See Me.

Budget: AU$40–70

Letters to you is a journal where you can record letters for your child since birth for every birthday

6. Letters to You — the gift they'll use for 21 years

And here is the one that no one else at the shower will think to give.

Letters to You is a guided birthday letter journal designed for parents to write their child one heartfelt letter every birthday, from their very first year all the way to their 21st, plus open letter pages for all the moments in between.

For a book-loving parent, this is immediately understood and immediately wanted. It's a journal that lives on the shelf alongside their favourite books — and slowly, year by year, becomes the most personal one they own.

Inside each birthday section, gentle prompts help the parent reflect and write about who their child is becoming, what made them proud that year, the small details they never want to forget, and the love they want their child to always carry.

By the time the child turns 21, the parent will have created something extraordinary: a complete portrait of a childhood, written in their own hand, in their own voice, full of the details only a parent notices. And then they hand it over and watch them read it.

There is no gift like this one.

Why it's perfect for book-loving parents:

It's a beautiful physical book they'll keep forever
It's about writing and words — their natural language
It requires no special occasion to start — just the next birthday
It grows in meaning every single year
It will be read and reread long after you're gone

Available in English, French and Spanish — which makes it a beautiful option for multicultural families or parents who want to write to their child in the language closest to their heart.

Price: from AU$22. One of the most meaningful gifts on this list at any price point.

→ Discover Letters to You and order on Amazon Australia

7. A journal for the parent, not the baby

New parents are so bombarded with gifts for the baby that gifts for them, for the human beings going through one of the biggest transitions of their lives stand out immediately.

A beautiful blank journal, a guided self-care journal, or a pregnancy-to-parenthood memoir journal gives a book-loving new parent a place to process, reflect, and write through the wildest season of their life.

Look for: Motherhood: A Journal by Letters to My Daughter, any Leuchtturm1917 notebook, or Kikki.K's guided journals available across Australia.

Budget: AU$25–55

How to make any book gift even better

Whatever you choose from this list, consider adding:

A handwritten note: book lovers appreciate words. Write something real about why you chose the gift, what you hope for this new family, or a memory you have of the parents before they became parents.

A gift message on Amazon: if you're ordering online and sending directly, almost every retailer including Amazon allows you to add a personalised gift message at checkout. Use it. It takes two minutes and transforms the experience of receiving the gift.

Your own favourite childhood book — include a copy of the book that meant the most to you growing up, with a note inside explaining why. This turns any gift into something deeply personal.

The bottom line

Baby showers are full of beautiful, forgettable things. The gifts that get remembered, the ones that come up in conversation years later, are the ones that were chosen with real thought for who the parents actually are.

For book-loving parents, Letters to You is the gift that does exactly that. It speaks their language, honours what they value, and gives them something to do with all that love they're about to feel — one birthday letter at a time, for the next 21 years.

→ Order Letters to You on Amazon Australia from AU$22

Also available in French and Spanish.

Order Letters to You

Ink & Memory