Picking the Right Mother's Day Gift

April 8th would have been my DM's 84th b'day, had she not passed on in '94. I still miss her in many ways.

When Mother's Day approaches, I often have to smile when I remember some of the absolutely awful gifts we three kids bought her with our allowances during our growing years. It took a long time to learn how to pick out things that she would treasure. However, along the way we gave her some truly terrible gifts. Every time one of the little neighborhood store owners saw us walk in with our change purses and mention Mother's Day, I swear they pulled out everything they couldn't sell to anybody except a trio of innocent kids.

One year we bought her a ridiculous pink felt poodle skirt and cried when she wouldn't wear it. She finally wore it once, at a Tupperware party or something like that, and I remember hearing her whisper to the others that it had been a gift from the kids. I don't know how they all kept from laughing.

For a few years, for Mother's Day, Easter, and her birthday, we gave her rose bushes to plant. She had casually mentioned she loved our neighbor's bushes. Poor Mom. One day, she finally told us to "stop." Turns out she liked them, but she personally didn't have the time to plant and care for them.

This year, I was thinking about the Home Sweet Home sign in my Etsy shop. She would have loved that. And the cute fridge magnets asking for "help" for Mom. She would have gotten a kick out of that.

We learned along the way that Moms can always use something useful, but they treasure other things. They work hard to keep our homes for us and they love knowing we appreciate that work. They love feeling like women and not like 24/7 mothers. I like to use the word "pretties" for the kind of thing I finally realized my Mom enjoyed receiving.

If you're thinking of a Mother's Day gift this year, you are so lucky your Mom is still with you. Take your time. Pick something she will like and enjoy. Pick something that doesn't make more work for her. Pick a book by her fave author. Or, a "pretty," just for her female self.