What is the perfect birthday gift for a mother?

Tell us more about her- does she have hobbies? What does she like to do for fun?

Grand children? That’s what my mother, and mother in law, and most mothers I know seems to want more than anything. Tiresome.

She is a simple person, loves handiwork, simple gestures, she is a teacher… anything you need to know in particular??

@Cartman haha, i think i am a little young to do that, atleast i am not ready yet ;)

@Roory neither am I, but she doesn’t seem to get it :) Good Luck!

Peace & quiet…that’s all my mom ever asked for & now that I have a 4yr old, I completely understand.

If she’s a teacher & your mom, I can’t think of anything more that she’d need than a getaway of some sort.

Pedi & Mani if you’re on a budget…

A resort weekend if your not (or if you have siblings that’ll go in on it).

Spa. Massage. Dinner. Nice personal card. Photo album. Depends on the budget.

If she likes simple things how about one of these:

Getting her car detailed (or doing it yourself if money is tight.)

Planting a rose bush or bedding plants to suprise her.

I got my mom a goat and she loved it.

If she is a teacher she might like the goat best to share with her students.

Oh, you really meant a goat.

@Zen- yup a real goat.

A goat supplies a family with an income selling milk and cheese.

As you can see from the ‘sibling’ questions down the right hand side of this page, there are many more answer to be found.

As a mother and a grandmother, I can assure you that the best present is time with the family, maybe in terms of a meal together, or a family outing.

@Dog we live in the city, so it will a tough thing to get a goat , and umm… i think she will chop my head off for bringing her more work to do at home, haha but thanks for the idea

@YARNLADY We just took my MIL out to a tea room/garden room. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy the outing and time spent with her family, and repeatedly said so. FYI-she is also a teacher

@Roory-Check the link. The goat is in your Mom’s name. She does not get an actual goat.

I think anything spa related. (ie: facial, pedicute, manicure, massage etc.) I get my Mom a spa-day every year for her birthday and she has told me several times she looks forward to it every June ^_^ Over the years I have learned just how much my Mum does/has done for me and my sister. She has sacrificed soo much of her own pampering to pamper us two, so it was time she was treated like a Queen for a change – LB

She has touched so many lives as a teacher. Also moms are all about family gatherings. How about a photo frame? A slideshow of her favorite pictures can keep her spirits high. I saw a contemporary one at Best Buy. A bigger 10” screen was available also but needed a piece of class or plexi to make it complete.

When I turned 50, my daughters went and had really great portrait photographs taken, of them separately and together. I love them. Another great and low cost gift is to scan all the family photos to disks. This year, I would love to spend the day with both girls together, with no one having to rush off or take phone calls. Now that they are older, time is a really great gift.

If your mom is more into things, an iPod would be nice, if she doesn’t have one, loaded with some of her favorite music.

Something I did several years ago for my mom (and, as it turned out just a few years before she died) was this: I came up with 52 questions, one for each week of the year, for us to correspond about via email. I asked things like, “When was your first kiss? Who was the boy and what was the situation?” “Growing up, what was your favorite toy? Why?” “What is the saddest memory you have from childhood? The happiest?” “How did you meet dad and when did you decide you were going to be married?” “What is your favorite physical trait? Why is it your favorite?” Etc. We each had a list of the questions and the idea was for us each to respond to the questions in an email to the other. I learned so much about my mom (and she about me) using this idea. Unfortunately, we wound up not finishing the year because I got busy (blah, blah, blah). I wish now that we had stuck it out the whole time. Now that she’s gone there are so many questions left unanswered.

If 52 questions seems like too much you could halve it or do something like this once a month.

@suzyq2463, what a wonderful idea. I too wish my mother were around to answer some questions that I never thought of when I was younger.

Here is something I did do, though. I wanted to give her some money because I knew things were tight, but I wanted to make it easy for her to accept. So I planned out a series of ten messages and bought a box of beautiful notecards, art prints of paintings of young mothers. I got ten crisp hundred-dollar bills from the bank, and every Friday for ten weeks I mailed her a notecard with a message detailing some treasured childhood memory involving her, such as how she talked to me while combing out my long hair after my bath or how she made Christmas magical. I tucked a bill into each card but never directly mentioned the money. She could thank me effusively for the message and never have to mention the material gift; we both simply knew. I think the memories—the knowledge of how she was remembered—meant more to her than the cash, but I do know that the money helped to make her life easier as well.

I should add that we were 3000 miles apart and I couldn’t just drop in to visit with her.

digital picture frames are always good for moms. fill it with pictures of the family + family pets and anything else she might enjoy!

Will she have a birthday cake or special dinner?
If nothing is planned, then maybe you could make that.
If money is tight then the 52 questions, or other thoughtful things like that are really appreciated.
@SpatzieLover, yes peace and quiet!
Maybe rent her a movie that she has wanted to see and get some of her favorite snacks, then leave her alone if that is something she would enjoy.

real estate

If she likes sentimental things I would get a blank photo album, find a bunch of old photos, put them in some sort of order, and go to town! Buy a ton of those scrapbooking stickers and make a nice album that she can keep and appreciate for years and years.

@Zuma Yes Lucy ;) I thought I was the only one…

@wilma Ooooh Movies..Hey @Roory, Netflix is a great subscription for a mom (we’ve done it for a dad) that likes movies. They have foreign films & documentaries, as well as TV series seasons, too.

Maybe roses or a spa day or maybe even a massage! :)
Peace and quiet in home might be a good thing.

If you live far away from her, then calling her a little more often.