Mother’s Day is a wonderful day for celebrating the women who helped raise us and turned us into independent, successful adults. They’ve been there for us over and over again, from taking care of our every need in infancy to keeping food on the table, clothes on our back and a roof over our head.
Here’s the real secret of Mother’s Day: It’s not the expense of the gift that really matters. It’s the thought and time spent on the gift that counts. Here are seven gifts that keep that idea front and center.
A framed poem written in your handwriting. You don’t have to find the “perfect” poem. Just find one that’s meaningful to you and your mother would find meaningful, too. If you’re not sure where to start, check out the Poetry Foundation’s list of poems for Mother’s Day.
Then take a piece of white paper, put a piece of lined paper under it and copy down the poem in your best handwriting. Use two columns if need be, and don’t feel bad if you have to start over a time or two. When you’re done, frame that sheet of paper in an 8- by 10-inch frame. Be sure to include the original poem name and author.
A day spent together. Simply spend a day with your mother. Let her choose what you do together, like a morning church service, an afternoon working in the garden or an evening playing cards.
It doesn’t have to be anything special. It just needs to be a day when your mother — and the things that she wants — are the center. Let her guide the day and just go along with it, even if the activity is not your favorite thing. Focus on the fact that the day is bringing her joy, and that will make it a memorable day for her.
A framed photo of your favorite shared moments. Go through your digital and physical photo archive, and find a photo from a favorite moment you shared together. Perhaps you have a photo from a childhood vacation, or maybe it’s something simple like a picture your father took of the two of you lounging in chairs somewhere under a tree.
Get a nice print of the photo made, frame it and give it to her. It’s likely she remembers the moment as well, and that photo can become a meaningful touchstone for the two of you.
A homemade meal. Drop by your mother’s home with an armload of ingredients, and make a meal from scratch for you and her (and anyone else who might be present) to share. Pick a recipe that you’re sure your mother will like, and focus on executing it well, making it as “from scratch” as you can. You can even go so far as to make pasta from scratch, or make pasta sauce from a pile of vegetables.
It doesn’t matter whether the meal is perfect. What matters is that you put time in it just for her. As always, it’s the time, effort and thought that counts.
Complete an elbow grease task. There are just some tasks that take a lot of work to pull off successfully. Taking on those tasks without skipping a beat can be a wonderful gift.
Manually wash her car with sponges so it sparkles far better than any automatic carwash can pull off. Clean up her yard, getting rid of piles of yard waste that accumulated throughout the winter. Fertilize her lawn — or perhaps just mow the lawn. Clean her garage. Give her snow blower some maintenance. Change the oil in her car.
These “elbow grease” tasks can really make a difference in her life. Sure, if she’s like most moms, she’ll want to spend some time together, so do that, too.
Teach her something. If you know any useful skills your mother would like to learn, spend part of Mother’s Day with your “patient” hat on and teach her that skill. Show her how to stream her favorite music online or how to clean pop-ups off her computer.
Take things slowly, and answer any and all questions that come up. Always keep in mind a skill that comes easily to you isn’t necessarily one your mother spent her early life honing.
Take on her to-do list. When I was a kid, my mother always had an ongoing to-do list that she would keep in a steno notebook. She’d cross off items as she completed them and added new ones when they came up.
If you want to give a great Mother’s Day gift, take care of a few items on her list that don’t require her personal touch. Maybe it involves mowing the yard or going to the grocery store or running errands in town. Whatever you find on her list, tackle it for her.
Mother’s Day can be a memorable and wonderful day for your mother without requiring you to open up your wallet. You just need to give her the things that really matter — time, thought and love.
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7 Cheap but Thoughtful Gifts for Mother’s Day originally appeared on usnews.com
