Best Mother’s Day Gifts

The best gifts don’t cost a cent

Mother’s Day is almost here. This is the day your children show just how much they love and appreciate you. The weekly flyers and television commercials are full of suggestions on what they should buy for you but instead it could be causing them great stress. You know they haven’t saved any money for a gift and their bank account is tapped out. Do you really want them to go into debt to buy you a gift?

If you are like most mothers you don’t want your children to break their piggy banks or raid their savings to buy a gift. You would rather have the kids save the money for their future or pay off their student loans.Remember when your children were small and they made your Mother’s Day gift in school? I bet you still have it!

The true spirit of Mother’s Day is about making memories together not how much your children spend on a gift. Their goal is to let you know how special you are to them, not to create a lot of unnecessary credit card debt.

Take the pressure off your children and let them know the best gifts are the ones that don’t cost a cent.

This year offer them suggestions on what you’d like for Mother’s Day in advance. With a little help from you they will be able to create a terrific memory you will cherish for years to come.

Consolidated Credit has these six suggestions for you to give the children so they can plan a special day for you:

Gift of time – Moms just want to spend time with their children so make it a Mother-Daughter/Son day, spend the whole day with her. Do the things she likes doing and treat her like a queen.

Home video – Make a tribute video to mom. This may take a bit time but the end result is priceless.

Mom’s mix – Fill your mom’s MP3 player with a collection of all the songs that remind you of her.

Write a letter – Hand write a letter instead of buying a card, write about all the good memories you have with her and all the things that make her so special.

Give mom the day off – Make a coupon booklet for mom and include things like “Having tea together once a week”, “Making her lunch twice a week”, “Laundry for the month”, or just general chores around the house. Be prepared to honour the coupons, Mom will collect!

Digital photo show – You can upload photos on to her computer and create a nice slide show.

Dinner – Make Mom dinner! It’s not what you cook that counts it’s the time you spend at the table together.

Jeffrey Schwartz is the Executive Director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada and President of the Credit Association of Greater Toronto (CAGT). Consolidated Credit is a national non-profit credit counselling organization that teaches consumers about personal finance through web-based budget and debt analysis tools, financial literacy community outreach programs and in-person or telephone counselling. CAGT is a non-profit association with a mission to provide a dynamic forum in which members can share information and expertise.