I'm not the best gift giver—I'm quite often stumped as to what to get anyone for any occasion. But recently I had inspiration for gifts for parents. Picture this: Your friends just had a kid, and you want to do something to ease them back into real life, and now you're wondering what would make good gifts for new parents. Or maybe their kids are older, they're in school, and the parents' days are spent at work, then shuttling their little ones around from activity to activity—what would be good gift ideas for parents that are so busy?

The gift of time.

And that's why the best gift ideas for parents—any parent—is to give them some time back, and the best way to do that: don't give them anything, instead take something away. Take something off of their to-do list.