10 Gifts for Mom from Dad

Supply chain issues got your Christmas or birthday gifts lost in the mail? Budget a little tight? Looking for something special for the woman who seemingly has it all? This blog is for you. Here are 10 gift ideas for Mom that don’t cost a dime, and UPS won’t chuck onto your front porch like a Hail Mary at the end of a football game.

1. Time – Yes Dad, we work hard for our family, but let’s be honest, Mom is on another level. Give her a break. Take the kids for an hour, a day, heck, maybe a week. Let Mom have some time to herself, no one clinging to her, no one to care for. Let her recharge.
2. Dad “Coupon Books” – Make a book with “coupons” that she can “redeem” whenever she wants. They can be for a back rub, a night off from cooking, a day off from bath duty with the little dudes/dudettes, whatever it is. You know your wife. What does she want but won’t ever ask for? That. Put that in there.
3. Write a letter – We’re all guilty of falling into the “parent trap” where life revolves around the little tykes, and we forget to tell our wives how special they really are. Sit down and write out those thoughts. Pretend you’ve just started dating again. Tell her everything that made you fall in love with her, and what you love about her today. For extra points, actually mail it.
4. Clean the house – Fellas, you could give her all the diamonds in the world, but if you give her a spotless house that she didn’t have to lift a finger for? That is the gift she’ll remember. Even better if you can do it while she’s out and surprise her when she comes home.
5. Make a time capsule – This is a blast with the kiddos. Get the little ones involved and put together a box of things that represent everything you all find special about Momma. Show it to her, then bury it (or hide it in a closet) until a specified time, then open it and laugh about how much she loved Taylor Swift.
6. Make a family home movie – Go through the thousands of pictures you have on your phone, and use the iPhone’s (or *gulp* Android, if you must) photo app to make a home movie of them. It could be just your favorite pictures of her, you and her, the kids, or a combination of all three. If you have the technology, gather the family for the “premiere” on the big TV in the living room. Make popcorn.
7. Wash her car – This could be an “IOU” for when the weather warms up, but take her car and free it of Goldfish crumbs, fast food wrappers, smushed fruit snacks and soda spills. Make it spotless. Vacuum the interior. Wash and wax the outside. Tire shine, the whole deal. A little spritz of some fancy air freshener. Make her feel like the Boss Mom she really is the next time she leaves the driveway.
8. Make her a playlist – Some of us may have done this back in the day on a cassette tape. Thankfully those days are gone, and a special playlist is as easy as opening up Spotify or downloading from iTunes. Fill it with songs that she loves, that you both love, and that you love but make you think of her.
9. Do something nice in her name – Does she have a favorite charity, or a cause she’s particularly passionate about? Make a donation in her name, give blood in her name, contribute somehow to whatever it is in her name.
10. Make a family board game – This will take some research, but make your own family trivia game. Fill it with little-known facts about everyone in the house. The actual gameplay isn’t important, but everyone will remember finding out that Dad was in an MC Hammer cover band in high school.

As a little bonus, take your gift (or gifts) from this list and turn it into a scavenger hunt whenever you give her the presents. Set up clues all around the house that lead her to the next, and eventually, the end, where she finds the present that she will assuredly remember forever.