My Favorite Mother’s Day Gift…Ever!!!

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Nearly three decades ago—when my daughter Sara was just three years old—I received a Mother’s Day gift that I will never forget. It wasn’t a piece of expensive jewelry, a gift certificate to a designer boutique, or a weekend at a beauty spa. No…it was a nondescript ceramic mug selected by my young daughter when her “daddy” took her shopping to buy me something special for that special Sunday.

My husband brought my daughter to a shop that sold kitchen utensils, dinnerware, and pottery. He suggested to Sara that a mug for my morning coffee might make a nice gift for her mommy. She looked at the racks of mugs, pointed to a beige mug with a brown handle that had some writing on it and said, “I want that one, Daddy.” My husband read the writing on the side of the mug and tried to turn her attention to other coffee mugs. He pointed out one with brightly colored fish. “No,” my daughter said as she pointed again to her first selection, “I want that one.” My husband then showed her a mug with pretty flowers painted on it. “How about this one?” he asked. “No, Daddy! I want that one!” My husband could not change my daughter’s mind about the gift she wanted to give Mommy.

And so, reluctantly, my husband took the beige mug from the shelf and brought it to the sales clerk who read the writing on the mug and looked at him reproachfully. “This is a Mother’s Day gift?” she asked him. “Yes,” he gulped. She shook her head.

On Mother’s Day 1983, I unwrapped my daughter’s present…and laughed…and laughed. Every time I look at that mug I still laugh. Here’s a picture of it:

Here’s what the writing on the mug says in case you can’t read it in the picture:

My Mother
Always told me:
Son, you can’t buy
LOVE.
But she never told me
That I couldn’t
RENT it.

Is that too funny??? I thought it was. In addition to the mug (which I keep in a safe place), I got the gift of a good belly laugh that Mother’s Day.

That’s the story of MY favorite Mother’s Day present…ever!!!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the Turley Blog mothers–and to mothers everywhere!

12 thoughts on “My Favorite Mother’s Day Gift…Ever!!!”

  1. My favorite Mother’s Day gift from my daughter was a collage she made when she was about 10. My favorite gift from my son is Mother’s Day letter he wrote about five years ago.

  2. Mothers. all quadrizillion of them, like fathers, just do their thing.

    Mothers and fathers are not the problem.

    Or the solution.

    What is being produced is the problem.

  3. Thanks, All! I have the best Mother’s Day gift any mother could have–a great daughter who is very close to me.

  4. Elaine M

    Happy Mothers’ Day to you and I’ll extend my wish for a well deserved day of appreciation to each and all mothers and step-mothers.

  5. Elaine,

    Happy Mother’s Day to you and to all our other blog family mother’s as well.

  6. Elaine M.,

    That was wonderful…brought a morning chuckle….and if we think in the real esoteric terms of life….isn’t everything we possess…just rented…maybe your daughter was way ahead of the game of life and how to play it….

Comments are closed.