Dear DoD,
I really want to make my mum feel special this Sunday. I know I can buy her flowers and perhaps make her some breakfast, but what’s the best way to celebrate Mothers’ Day?
Miss Q.
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Dear Miss Q,
There’s a pretty simple rule for Mothers’ Day: Mum is going to love you no matter what you do for her. That’s the great thing about mums… they’re very resilient and will put up with a lot of disappointment.
Remember those crappy perfumes you bought from the chemist when you were about eleven years old? You thought they were oh-so-glamorous and sophisticated, while in reality they could only have been used to bleach the shower.
Still, she loved it. She loved it because you decided to buy it for her. It’s just another reason why mums so awesome. So, perhaps your question is in fact a different one:
What shouldn’t you do?
We have knowledge of a pretty tragic case of a young Canberran who had moved to Perth to study. The fact he was broke was not going to stop him from getting something for his mum, however let’s just say that the gift of choice was not a particularly spectacular one.
He bought her a couple of ‘scratchies’.
Armed with his three $5.00 instant lotteries tickets, and feeling that he’d saved a fortune on mailing a larger gift, he proceeded to the post office. At that moment, a thought struck: these were Western Australian Lotteries tickets. How would his mum be able to cash them in if she won? The solution seemed obvious. He would have to scratch them himself and see what the result might be.
Here’s where it really goes downhill. All three were duds – there were no wins at all. With a growing realisation that this was possibly going to be the worst Mothers’ Day present in the history of humankind, he reluctantly placed the scratched and unlucky tickets into the card (along with an accompanying explanation) and trudged off to the post office with a heavy heart.
At the end of the week his mum – in an understanding tone that reasonably did not sound thrilled – called to thank him for the ‘gift’. The embarrassment for him was absolute, but his mum loved him all the same.
If you can do worse than that, we want to hear about it.
The final word: If you tell Mum you love her, and exactly why you love her, that will mean more than any present in the world. Go and get her something nice as well, though… because she deserves it for putting up with you all these years.
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If you’re looking for ideas to treat your mum next Sunday, click here to check out our Mothers’ Day Guide for plenty of inspiration.
