It’s Mother’s Day, but the clock is still ticking for you to snag your mom — or the mother of your children — an awesome last-minute gift and avoid coming off like a thoughtless jerk. There a couple of routes you can go when it comes to Mother’s Day gifts: Flowers and dinner are always solid. Your mom’s sure to appreciate it if you surprise her with a mimosa and offer to do every chore around the house. The key is to find some way you can make her life a little more pleasant and thank her for keeping you from electrocuting yourself as a kid.
What you don’t want to do is give her a terrible gift that will leave you feeling like a garbage child for years to come. If you’re unsure what constitutes a bad Mother’s Day gift, these stories of Mother’s Day gone wrong from Reddit should give you a clear idea.
When you think you’re helping, but really not.
Gym passes, Weigh Watchers guides, anything that basically says “Hey, you could use a little work” is a probably not going to go over smoothly. Time takes its toll on everyone, but as Dildodiety’s father found out, it’s probably best not to offer quick fix as a gift.
“My dad is the king of terrible gift giving. Don’t get me wrong, he tries VERY hard. He tries to get you things he thinks you need or really want, but it never works.
5 years ago, my mom started to complain about wrinkles and the like. My dad, thinking he knew exactly what he needed to get her.. got her a gift certificate for Botox. My mom, the funniest person I know, started to laugh and accepted the gift anyway (even though I think she was a little offended). My brothers and I didn’t know he got her Botox.. so when she opened the card all three of us were holding our breath and bracing for impact.”
Sarcastic orange cats don’t make good gifts.
Garfield belongs in two places, the funnies section of your newspaper and on the back windshield of a minivan in 1987. That’s it. Jim Davis’ sarcastic fat cat has been incredibly popular for more than three decades now, but that doesn’t mean your mom wants him dangling from her ears. Bad move, Lijax.
“I treated my mother to a pair of earrings which had Garfield on them.
Sure she doesn’t have pierced ears, but it’s Garfield, right? What’s not to love?
For as long as I’ve been old enough to recognize the difference between a good and sh*t present I have been trying to make up for it. She’s the best person in my life.”
Pranks and Mother’s Day don’t mix.
If you forgot to pull a prank on April Fools’ Day, DON’T try to make up for it on Mother’s Day. As Sk17 foolishly found out, its chances of backfiring are pretty much 100%.
“For Mother’s Day my sister and I thought it would be funny to “forget” Mother’s Day. This was right after my dad was commuting between Arkansas and Florida for a new job, so she was stressed to begin with. As we are plotting our surprise Mother’s Day gift in my sister’s room my Mom came in bawling her eyes out and tells us that she is sick of taking care of everything around the house and I quote ‘this is the worst Mother’s Day ever.’ Needless to say it turned out to be the worst prank ever.”
Avoid gifts that result in infections.
Any gift that results in the person having to likely visit the doctor for an antibiotics prescription is automatically a bad gift. Redditor Aden_Sickel’s apparently has bad gift-giving encoded in his DNA, because the guy takes the cake when it comes to gift-giving disappointment.
“My dad is a terrible gift giver. One year for my mother’s birthday, he got her a computer monitor for his computer. Another time, for Mother’s Day he got her a lawn mower. For their anniversary one year he got her a mini ironing board for pressing shirts. On many occasions he got her tools for his tool shed.
The one that takes the cake, though, is the time he decided to remodel the outside of the house. My mom was gone on a church trip and would be back on their anniversary. She had asked that the house simply be painted all one color. It was an old trailer home and while the siding was all the same style it was 3 different colors. Me and my dad tore all the siding off and replaced it, mostly, with this super cool concrete composite wood replicate all the way to the top except for the last row, because he couldn’t figure out how to reattach the roof properly. We left it like that and black mold started growing in the walls as rain water poured in over the years. We all developed respiratory infections.”
Homemade cards are overrated.
Homemade cards are cute when you’re a five-year-old working through your creative macaroni art phase, or an incredibly talented adult artist. They don’t particularly go over well, though, when you insult the person you’re giving them too. What was going through your young, dumb brain, Emily?!
“True story: When I was a young child I couldn’t quite grasp humor. I kept seeing all those cards in the shops that said things like “Happy Birthday… Old man!” and just generally making fun of the fact someone was old.
Since I observed people tended to laugh at these cards I decided to make my Mum one for mother’s day. I drew the most detailed old, ugly and sagging face on a piece of paper. With the line ‘Happy Mothers day, another year of old and ugly’.
My Mum, who is incredibly strong and resilient, burst into tears.”
Skip the barnyard animal wardrobe.
Clothes are jewelry are generally a pretty safe bet for Mother’s Day gifts, provided you know what kind of styles your mom likes. Unfortunately, Gte615 was stuck with a clueless father who thought their mom would enjoy being dressed up like The Magic School Bus’ Ms. Frizzle.
When I was a kid, my mom had one shirt with a cow on it that she liked as a fun shirt. My dad took this to mean that my mom loved all clothing, jewelry, etc. with animals on it. My dad took me, my brother and sister (all under the age of 10) shopping, and we bought her all kinds of shit with animals on it – chicken earrings, pig slippers, f*cking alligator necklaces, cow pants, sheep sweatshirts -all that shit. The look on her face was priceless as she was opening yet another present with all kinds of hideous animal print all over it. Of course me and my siblings were excited to point out: ‘this one has sheep on it!!!'”
If it involves a chore, it’s a bad gift.
If you take away one single nugget of wisdom from these tales of Mother’s Day failure, let it be this: if it involves your mom doing work, it’s a suck-ass gift. Who knows what sort of gift thisRedditor punished his/her mother with for Mother’s Day, but if it’s anywhere near as bad as their Christmas gift, then it definitely didn’t go over well.
“Gave my mom a plastic snow shovel for Christmas once, because hers broke and she didn’t like using my dad’s heavy metal one. It seemed like a good idea at the time but I later realized what a stupid gift it was and felt really bad for a while.”
Again, if it involves mom doing work, it’s not a good gift.
“I pitched in with my dad and brother to buy my mom a new state of the art vacuum for my mom for her birthday. she was less than pleased.” Via Awkwardbumblebee
Now, go forth and find your mom the perfect gift that says “I love you, thanks for everything” and not “Please clean up after me.”
