A Baby Boomer Diva's Guide to Shopping for Mother's Day

As long as I can remember, Mother's Day has always been the second Sunday in May. It's one of those holidays where the DATE might change but the time of the month NEVER does. Since this is a well known fact, why is it that people choose to wait until "D" day to go out and buy Mother's Day gifts and cards?

I was one of those people. I went to Wal-Mart today to try to find a nice little gift for my mother-in-law. I didn't want to get her anything too fancy because she would just end up hiding it---never to be found again (she has Alzheimer's). I thought flowers would be a nice touch. It would brighten up her bedroom and maybe trigger some memories back to the time when she used to care for the flowers in her own garden. Well, that was a bad idea. Everybody in the world was obviously thinking the SAME thing. The flower buckets were nearly wiped out. I had to be creative and try to mix and match flowers---without getting caught.

Then I went over to the card section. You would think Wal-Mart was having some kind of special on cards. The racks were empty. The only few cards I saw were some that had June Clever on the front and that just wasn't going to work for my mother-in-law. She may have had a June Clever like image back in the day---but the card company could've at least had the decency to make another June Clever image look more "soulful."

I figured I might have better luck at the dollar store down the street from my house so I went there. It was also JAM PACKED with people purchasing Mother's Day items. It was CRAZY! While I was in the store I had to play mom to someone else's children because they were getting out of line.

So what did I learn today?

1) If you have to wait until the last minute, don't shop. Give the gift after the fact. It'll mean more.

2) Buy silk flowers instead---even if the price is jacked up. They last forever.

3) Shop around for cards that fit the "image" you're looking for. June Clever ain't it and neither is "Florida" from Good Times.

4) A mother is a 24/7 job--no matter whose children they are!