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Treat a Single Mom on Mother’s Day
Posted by Editormum on 12 May 2006 in Just Another Single Mother | ∞
Mother’s Day is a tough one for the single mom, especially if her kids are too young to plan treats for her. Either the single mom just ignores the day, or she goes through it as if it were just another day, generally.
If you’d like to make Mother’s Day special for a single mom you know, here are some ideas:
- Give her a gift certificate to a spa or salon, and offer to keep the kids for a few hours so that she can get pampered without having to juggle kids and budgets.
- Invite her to a Mother’s Day lunch or brunch, your treat. If you can arrange someone to keep the kids, so much the better. If not, dress ’em up and take ’em along. Good chance for them to learn how to act in a nice restaurant.
- Send her flowers and/or candy … it’s okay if they get there on Saturday; trust me, she will spend all day Sunday smelling those flowers and savouring the candy.
- Arrange for yard or maid service, if those are things she cannot provide for herself.
- Give her a gift card to her favourite store.
Things to remember when gifting single moms.
- They are usually fiercely proud and won’t admit to having “needs” because they don’t want to inconvenience others — so you will have to be sharp-eyed and intuitive to see what’s needed without her saying so.
- They often resist “charity” from people they know, so you may want to make the gift anonymously or in such a way that she cannot gracefully refuse — but don’t be condescending or patronizing.
- They have tight budgets to stay within, so simple luxuries like a meal at a “grown-up restaurant” or manicures and pedicures are usually things she can’t afford.
- They have an intense and overwhelming need to know that they are doing a good job rearing their children. Many single moms detest having to leave their kids and go to work, and they worry about the effects of “benign neglect” that their kids might suffer. A simple word of reassurance on this point (like: “Your kids sure are well-behaved! You’re doing a great job with them.”) is sometimes the greatest gift of all.
- Their lives are frequently structured in such a way that one small thing going wrong can cause a complete upheaval in their lives. The smallest deviation in schedule, or a small inconvenience like a flat tire, can wreak havoc in budgets, schedules, and mental composure. Anyone who can help in these crises is viewed as a saint and an angel.
Hug a single mom this weekend. I guarantee you, she needs it!