So what is the BEST Mother’s Day Gift idea?
Instinctively, without reading any farther, you probably already know the answer to this.
If you think back to your own experience as a child, when you inevitably posed this question to your own mother, she replied with something like:
“I just want to spend time together as a family,” or “I would love one day when you kids got along with each other without bickering or fighting,” or “I’d love anything handmade by you.”
I chalk these up to tired mothers who knew that they wouldn’t get what they REALLY wanted, so they said the noble thing.
As someone for whom motherhood did not come easily (my husband and I struggled with infertility and multiple miscarriages), you’d think it would be enough for me just to be able to say, “I’m a mother.” And indeed, in my better moments, it IS enough.
But when the human side of me emerges, I must admit that most Mother’s Days have been disappointing because I didn’t get what I wanted.
What I would REALLY like for a Mother’s Day gift:
Which is this: to have one day when I don’t do everything I instinctively do as a mother every day, and NOT to have it look like I took the day off.
The day would look something like this:
1. We’d arrive at church as a family, all clean, well-groomed, happy, fed, and on time. I would be calm, collected, able to concentrate on the service and the words of each hymn and prayer, rejoicing in the blessings that God has given me.
I would have arrived in this state because I didn’t have to do a diaper change as we were heading out the door, deal with grumpy teen-agers, or make provisions for potential melt-downs during church.
2. We’d come home to a tidy house (no sports gear or doggy-do in the entry way, laundry done, folded and put away, mail reckoned with and properly stowed), ready to enjoy a hearty meal, gathered around the table in peace and joy.
3. There might be a gift or two for me to open. Ideally, it would be one I didn’t have to hint for (or purchase and wrap myself), but one that was selected based upon my family’s keen awareness of my interests, hobbies, and even needs (hint: scrapbooking supplies, a CD holder for the visor in the van, a book I’ve mentioned wanting to read).
4. My children would clean the kitchen (willingly and thoroughly) after the meal. Hey–I can dream, can’t I?
5. I’d have a few hours in the afternoon to spend on a leisurely pursuit (biking, reading, talking with my own mom).
~ That’s it! ~
Last year while doing the Mother’s Day postgame with a friend, I was struck by how similar our feelings were about this holiday. She reported having asked her children for a day when they got along without bickering, and her older child said, “Can’t we just to buy you something?”
My friend and I agreed that we want what is probably not realistic: a day off for good behavior… Maybe what we each want for the day is a wife!
>> Join in! What’s your ideal gift -or- the best gift you’ve ever given for Mother’s Day???
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Oh, yes! I am still waiting for my Mother’s day cleaning fairy to make a visit. Any time now…
This is a great list of what a perfect day would be! Really, I loved all your ideas. Don’t know if it will happen, but even if a couple did, that would be lovely.
I love this. My mom lives in another state so I don’t get to do the things I’d love to do for her. Thanks for the great post
That’s a list that most mothers would enjoy. My mother died in 1994 when I was a teen, so I didn’t get much of a chance to spoil her, but I do remember gifting her with homemade cards and small plants.
I love the clean kitchen idea! My love language is Acts of Service an that would certainly fill me up! These are all great ideas though. any mother would be happy to receive any of these.
That would be a great Mother’s Day! I would also add that it would be nice to not have to make dinner that night too.
This is great! This would help my Monday after Mother’s Day, too! Major catch up day from “Mom’s Day Off”! ;)
Love it! Wouldn’t it be nice if we just had a ‘perfect’ day?
This made me smile. I haven’t actually gotten to experience Mother’s day as a mom because my daughter was born shortly after the holiday last year. I don’t know how it will to but I am in the midst of infant craziness so I understand the need for peacefulness!
I have such a love/hate relationship with Mother’s Day. During 10 years of infertility, I learned to avoid the day and sob in private. When I finally became a mother I looked forward to my first Mother’s Day with giddy excitement. It was horrible. My husband slept in not even taking the first screaming baby shift for me. No acknowledgement was made at all for a day I finally got to celebrate. He said, “She isn’t old enough to do anything for you.” Needless to say Mother’s Days have not been fun. This year she will be almost 4 so we shall see if he does anything with her but I don’t expect or anticipate anything. Instead I have taken to planning a weekend away once a year just for myself. I go sleep for 12 hours straight in a quiet hotel room. It kind of works out better than just having one day.
Ha ha! That made me laugh. I’ve only been a mother for 2 years but I know that your wish list is hard to come by. But you are right — we can certainly ask.
This post made me smile! :)
My husband has never given me anything for Mother’s Day either of the years since our son was born. Last year, he said he’d do differently this year. But we’ll see. He’s not great with grand gestures, or really small ones either ;). He shows more with just the person he is on a day to day basis, spending time with us and going to work every day so that our son has everything he needs (and more!). The only gift I’ve received for Mother’s Day was a lovely vase of flowers, which my dad gave to me for Mother’s Day last year! I thought that was super sweet of him. For my mother I typically make her a handmade card (one year it was a butterfly made using several colors of paper), and most years I get her several presents that I give to her on different days around Mother’s Day!
This is so great!!! This will only be my 2nd Mother’s Day but already this list sounds pretty great to me! :)
This sounds like an Amazing Mothers Day! I don’t have children, but would be very happy to come home to a tidy house. he he he..Great ideas for me to think about when figuring out what to do for my mom. Thanks
Wow! Great list. I know my siblings and I were better at this the older we got, but now a days, Mother’s Day is barely even celebrated as a holiday! I hope to continue to celebrate my mom through the years for all she’s done for me, even though I’m out of the house now. Do you have any suggestions of gifts for those of us that live 2,000 miles away from our moms and can’t be with them on Mother’s Day?
haha So cute! I’ll definitely keep it in mind when I think of my mom this year. Mothers Day has a strange feel to it now that I am (almost) a stepmother, but I do still try to acknowledge and celebrate my mom on this day!
Loved your post and made me really think what I could do ‘different’ for my mum.
Very cute post. Sometimes the best gifts are the free ones. My children are all grown so the best mother’s day gift to me is to for all of us to spend the day together. And, It doesn’t matter what we do!
Not just moms…I ask my husband for “a clean house” every holiday! It’s the best gift, lol!
The best gift to me is spending time together. Anything else is a bonus–and I can totally relate to your list. I hope you have a happy one this year!
When our children were still living with us, I wished for the same as you :) But now, that they have their own lives, my only wish for this Mother’s Day is for them to come home and spend the day with me :)
Yup, so agree with this. Personally, I have always thought we women should have a wife too to pick up and clean after us, cook when we don’t feel like it, handle the kids while we read our newspapers or watch a game on TV, etc. Guess I can dream too.
Sounds like a pretty good mother’s day to me! Now I am just happy if they remember and drop me an email LOL!
I totally agree except for the part about Church since we are Jewish. I especially agree about the tidy house and cleaning up the kitchen. I get so tired of telling my kids to put their things away. My older daughter practically springs out of her chair as soon as we finish eating. She never sticks around to help clean up unless we force her too.
yeah, what a joy that would be to get a Mother’s Day like that. I really can’t complain because I always use Mother’s Day to say “today, I’m doing NOTHING”, oh yeah I pay for it on Monday but that’s ok, I lounge around all of Sunday and do nothing. The house is a mess, the laundry is piled up, the kids are arguing, but, hey, I really am blessed beyond belief.
Aww you just reminded me that this year will be my first Mother’s Day! I don’t know what I would want, other than a full night’s sleep and the baby to chill out a bit heh.
Out here in Kuwait the first day of the week is Sunday so my experience of Mother’s Day is a little different to those I had in the UK. This year my husband was horrified when I asked him to get me a pie dish as my present. “I can’t buy you stuff for the kitchen” was the response. I think sometimes the perception of what we want is very different to the reality. A great list, it really made me smile.
Haha, I’ve gone through the same thing with my husband, I’ve had to convince him that I’m not tricking him when I ask for a practical gift and secretly hoping for something else, others may not, but I LOVE practical gifts :)
I thought I was the only one who (a) felt disappointed on many Mother’s Days and (b) wishes for that exact same list! I think that so many people (the Dads and kids alike, as well as some Moms) personally feel that Mother’s Day is a contrived “Hallmark holiday” so it doesn’t really mean anything. They don’t really get how much it can symbolize to some of us. Maybe we need to get the word out…
I agree, I’m often left feeling like “hey, I do so much for you all EVERY day and you can’t put a little thought and effort into ONE day???”…then I feel bad for thinking that ;)
Love your list – I always tell my family I want a clean house (that I don’t have to clean) and I don’t think they believe me, but that really would be heaven!
That’s sound like the perfect gift! I think the best gift for me would be just to have a day off- going shopping- alone, having coffee – alone, being able to eat a good meal – alone – as you said- a girl can dream! Happy Mother’s day!
I’m not a mommy yet, but these are certainly great tips on how to celebrate mine and my husband’s moms!!
ha! Got to agree with you. I remember a friend who was given a night alone in a hotel for mother’s day. She got to sleep. I always thought that would be the best gift. LOL.
Oh that sounds like heaven to me! Have the remote to myself…take a bath without any knocks on the door or having to be quiet so I don’t wake anyone up…wouldn’t even care if the house was clean when I got home ;)
I hear my daughter’s voice as I read your post. She is mom to a 6 and a 1 year old and this would be her ideal Mother’s Day!
I love that you shared your perfect mother’s day… which will never actually happen but as mothers we can dream. My ideal mother’s day gift is a day at the spa, then home for a nap and spending the rest of the day reading and drinking tea. Mine is just a dream too…
This is a great list. I’d just like to sleep in just a little.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I have some sad memories of Mothers Day from childhood. My Mom died when I was eleven. I remember being in sixth grade elementary school and the class was all working on Mothers Day projects. I didn’t even have a Grandmother around to make one for. But, moving on, I now have three wonderful children and a husband who always does his very best to create a great day for me.Most recently I had the luxury of spending most of the day working in my garden and then taken out to dinner…doesn’t get much better then that.
I’m sorry to hear that Laine…I think that is why most of us would never complain about Mother’s Day, because at the end of the day we are still some of the most fortunate in the world…a day gardening and dinner out would be an equal treat to the day listed above :)
That would be a perfect mother’s day! My mom should have shown me this list :P I’m showing this to my husband and 1 year old son!
That’s great, I hope they pull it off :)
This would be a spectacular Mother’s Day for me also. The first word that came to my mind when I read t he first few sentences was “no stress”. Then I laughed.
For me it would just be a Card that says I love you. Then some time to cuddle on the couch and watch movies I chose. Then to go visit my daughter at the Cemetery as she was killed when she was 16 without someone gripping as I wanted to visit her.
Glenda, I’m so sorry for your loss, I can’t even imagine…blessings to you
A relaxing and restful Mother’s Day! Do they exist?? :-)
This sounds like an awesome Mother’s day! I have two teenagers and the past few years Im lucky if they remember to say Happy Mothers day! We are usually at my inlaws with all their cousins and they get preoccupied.
Sigh… I would kill for everything on that list. Also, I would love to sleep in till 8 am just once.
What a great list!! If I got all of those, I would wonder if I had actually gone to heaven!! :)
Haha, right? Maybe our families fear that if we got this, we might get too used to it and ask for it more often ;)