It's Saturday, and the jewelery advertisement on SNL just told you that Mother's Day is tomorrow. As a teenager, you know you owe your mom big-time for tolerating your mood swings, lack of punctuality and generally unappealing attitude. How can broke and procrastinating but well-meaning teenagers like us reward the women who have loved us unconditionally in spite of all the pain we've put them through?
Here are a few simple ideas:
1. Breakfast in bed: It's the classic display of love and caring for mom. Getting up early on a Sunday morning is already an act of devotion, and mixing the pancake mix with oil and water is all it takes to get Mother's Day started on a good foot.
2. Serenade your mother: For those of you who have musical talents (and those of you who pretend to) this is the perfect way to impress your mom. I recommend playing her a serene and soothing chord or two in place of a morning alarm. Lyrics not required.
3. Make a homemade card: It worked when you were six, so why not now? All it takes is printer paper, some glitter glue, a pack of markers and sincerity. The more affectionate your letter is, the less it will matter that it looks like the handiwork of a preschooler.
4. Let mom meet the man of her dreams: I've been in the business of creative Mother's Day gifts for 12 years, and this one was by and large the most loved. My mom had said she wanted to go to Lake Como in Italy, where George Clooney lived, and spend a romantic afternoon with him there. I had to oblige, so I did the best that I could--I found a picture of George enjoying a glass of wine in his lakeside home and another of my mom also with a glass of wine in our backyard. Thanks to Adobe Photoshop, my mom now has living proof of her afternoon with George Clooney sitting in a picture frame on her dresser. McDreamy, McSteamy, Pitt and Redford--they're just a cut and paste away.
5. Fix yourself: This one is the clear favorite among moms everywhere and it's the only surefire way to make Mother's Day something more than a Hallmark holiday. The first four ideas are exclusively for the second Sunday in May, but this one's for every day.
It starts with the small things--taking care of the laundry once in a while, putting the dishes away after dinner, maybe keeping that disaster of a bedroom tidy for once in your life.
As a teenager, you've probably done or said things to your mom that make you cringe just to think about. You can't change the past but you can make the future a little better. So if all else fails, just try and make sure your mom knows you love her--it's the least you can do.
