Kelly Clarkson’s divorce is likely at the forefront of her mind right now, as she prepares to release her new album Chemistry. While she has promised the album won’t be all about heartbreak, the newest single “i hate love” kind of speaks for itself in that regard, so it’s probably not the most surprising thing that the talk show host is reflecting on possible red flags that she missed. Her joke on a recently aired episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show went viral, when she said Brandon Blackstock didn't give her a “push present” after the birth of their two children, but it left me wondering just how common this practice is.
Kelly Clarkson had apparently never heard of a push present — in which a mother is given a gift after having their baby. Her guests on the episode, Pink’s husband Carey Hart and Nick Jonas’ wife Priyanka Chopra, had to explain the whole concept to the host, leading Clarkson to lament:
I didn’t get a present. Whatever. That should have been a red flag.
This was clearly said in jest, but it still seemed possibly a little harsh. Having had two children myself in the same timeframe as Kelly Clarkson (whose children were born in 2014 and 2016), I honestly don’t think push presents were a widely known thing back then. Even now I have to wonder if this is something more popular with celebrities or for people with more “bougie” proclivities.
A quick poll of four of my closest girlfriends — all of whom also birthed children around the same time as the former coach of The Voice — confirmed that no gifts were received from their partners, nor were they expected. In fact, one friend responded to my question with only several crying laughing emojis.
Again, I understand that the slight shade Kelly Clarkson threw at Brandon Blackstock was at least mostly a joke, and she herself admitted that he probably also didn’t know what a push present was, saying:
Honestly I don’t know that he knew.
Kelly Clarkson certainly knows that marriage and parenting are hard enough without getting petty over something like a push present. Thinking back to those early days of parenthood, I was grateful to the point of tears for an extra hour of sleep!
However, celebrities like Carey Hart and Priyanka Chopra clearly live in a completely different world than mine, where maybe it’s more customary for the father of your children to buy you a postpartum motorcycle. You can see the full conversation from The Kelly Clarkson Show’s YouTube page below:
Kelly Clarkson has spoken before about red flags she missed during her marriage to Brandon Blackstock, saying that she doesn’t have any regrets about the relationship because she’s learned from it and has become a better person. She’s apparently still learning about certain things (like push presents), and maybe next she can find out whether or not there’s some kind of statute of limitations on how long one should wait for those gifts to come. Asking for myself and several friends.