(Someone who'd formed a habit, or just had to ask, asked me... "Mother" here includes your mother, your children's mother, your foster mother, adoptive mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, foster or adoptive child's natural mother, etc. Grandmothers are mothers too. Aunts, like fathers, uncles, sons, and daughters who don't have babies of their own, are not mothers. Though this list is not gender-specific on this list, my feeling is that Mothers Day is biological-role-specific...well, as an aunt I think it's a day for giving not receiving. We non-mothers can receive presents on other days! For example, if you use these precise links to buy stuff on Amazon, and resist the temptation to shop around, I earn a few pennies in commission, which will eventually add up to a payout from Amazon. I should live so long. But you get the idea. No need to feel bad if you shop around.)
1. Green mothers garden. Mothers Day falls after the optimum planting time for some plants in some places, but gardeners' shopping lists are endless. Gardeners can always use natural-material gardening gloves, plants, seeds, giftcards from their favorite nurseries and garden catalogues, herbal insect repellents, straw hats, cotton shirts and jeans...
Keep Calm T-Shirt
by Ecologicalstore
Pause for a Store Review: When I was growing up we always used to receive seed catalogues from lots of different companies, including Stark Bros. We ordered several kinds of plants and trees from the Stark family business. Now that Dad's gone and Mother's semi-retired, the fruit I'm still picking is coming from our Stark Bros seedlings. Not all of them thrived, but some apple, raspberry, and blueberry sprouts really took off...and paid off, over the past forty years! Cheers!
2. Even Green mothers get tired, even when they garden. (Some of them agree with Suzette Haden Elgin, who was a polio survivor, about using gardening as a symptom-buster. For anyone living with chronic pain or other symptoms, your symptom-buster is something that's easy enough and delightful enough that you can use it to tell when to ignore symptoms and when to go to bed or call the doctor.)
Tired gardeners might appreciate a coupon for free hours of help with gardening chores, or a massage for muscles that have been tired by too much gardening on those first irresistible days in April.
3. Green mothers enjoy nature. You never have to spend a lot of money on a treat for a True Greenie. They enjoy walks in the park with family (or friends), and may have storage room for another field guide...birds, trees, flowers, herbs, mushrooms, or even rocks.
4. All mothers appreciate understanding. Green mothers do everything that television teaches children is un-cool. They do their own chores, using hand tools. They wear old clothes until the seams fall apart. They buy things secondhand. They make young children recycle household junk into toys instead of buying snazzy new toys advertised on TV. They cook at home, with leftovers and "ugly" garden produce yet.
Around age twelve most young people go through a stage where they really feel embarrassed by the fact that they're still children. Apparently some communities don't teach them to feel ashamed of this childish feeling. I could wish that more adults had stood together to give more of my generation more of the message I'd absorbed, even as a teenager: "A person who is disloyal to his parents at 12 will be disloyal to his country at 21. If your parents belong to the Flat Earth Society, as a decent human being living in their home, you should go to meetings with them."
Anyway, if you've ever expressed embarrassment about the Green things your mother used to do, Mothers Day would be a good time to demonstrate that you've matured past that sort of thing now. Go to a yard sale or charity store with your mother. Help her entertain the next generation of your family with puppets made from soap bottles and finger-painted sheets of newspaper. Help carry out her recycling.
5. If you have the appropriate skills you might be able to help your Green mother with a big project she's not been able to do or afford on her own. Old-school Granola Greenies drive old clunkers if they drive anything. Proper maintenance can reduce the carbon footprints of those clunkers. Instead of preaching at them about that old minivan they keep to haul all the grandchildren, or all of their Sunday School class, around town, try tuning it up, cleaning the pipes, changing the filters, recycling worn tires and putting on new ones with fresh treads.
6. You can help "Green up" the house, too...just by being an extra pair of hands, but even more if you've acquired special skills and/or money. Mothers Day is not necessarily too late to help with "spring cleaning" chores like caulking, tightening, or replacing window screens to reduce the cost of climate control, or having storm windows and screens built to fit odd-shaped windows. My mother avoided mentioning expensive projects because none of her children or grandchildren is wealthy, but if you are, why not buy your Green mother a Prius? Or remodel the bathroom and install a water-free toilet.
7. Green mothers usually don't want a lot of "gift junk," especially things like scented soap (they don't like petrochemical fragrances) or new clothes (they wonder whether they'll live long enough to wear out the clothes they already own). There are, however, things even Greenies have to replace. After confirming that your Green mother is likely to use up her existing supplies, you might look for recycled stationery or a new tote bag spun from recycled plastic bottles.
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(If you search for "recycled stationery" on Amazon, you'll get masses of results.)
8. Sometimes it's the thought that counts. Show your Green mother that you've learned some of her tips and tricks. Help pass them on to her grandchildren.
9. While younger Greenies tend to be wild about computers, older Greenies have reservations about anything that's made from plastic, runs on electricity, and emits radiation. They prefer real books. If your Green mother is still adding books to her collection, find out what she does and doesn't have, or want.
One book your Green mother will be glad to have is the one you compile for her. You don't have to be a writer, or writer's assistant, although if you are your mother will probably proudly display your books. Just search for things that interest her on the Internet, print them out in nice clear large type on both sides of the paper, and put it all together in a recycled three-ring binder. (These "naked binders" are intentionally left bare so you can make your own jackets and labels.)
10. Spend quality time doing something earth-friendly on Mothers Day. Walk to a nature park, eat a healthy home-cooked picnic, sing old songs, and count birds and wildflowers together. Bake whole-grain bread together. Plant a tree.
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