As a parent, I can tell you a few key items that every parent should have. These would not get any “oohs” or “ahhs” at a baby shower, but they are VERY important. Maybe they are more for the parents than the baby, but a happy parent makes for a happy baby!

1. A little, itty-bitty, teeny-weeney screw driver. So many children’s toys and pieces of baby equipment come with a screwed-shut battery compartment. You need a small screw driver to get in there.

2. Kitchen Shears. When the baby gets older, it gets tiring cutting up pancakes, toast, hotdogs, pizzas, etc into bite-size pieces. A pair of kitchen shears (scissors) works great and then you can toss them into the dishwasher.

3. Wire Snippers. For opening toys again. Be like Uncle JB and carry yours in your pocket on Christmas Day. You will be the most popular guy in the room. Toy manufacturers wire those toys in so tight that if it weren’t for Uncle JB, we would not get into ours until New Year’s.

4. Rechargeable Batteries. For the toys again.

5. Storage boxes of every size and shape. As the kids get older, you need alot of those Rubbermaid-type boxes to store things in (Mr. Potatohead and all his pieces, the puzzle whose box was accidentally peed on during a potty-training boot camp session, blocks, etc)

6. A small cooler, a little bigger than a lunch box. You will use it for milk/formula when the baby is young. Then you will see how much a kids meal at the zoo costs (and how little your toddler will actually eat of it) and start packing PBJs. You’ll use it every week.

Can you think of any others?