So Your Wife Says She Doesn't Want A Gift for Mother's Day But Wants You to Do "Something"
I've got you covered, guys.
We have less than a month until Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10) and many (obligatory: not all) dads will find themselves in a particular situation: their wives will say they don’t really care what they do for Mother’s Day, and won’t have any ideas or suggestions. They will, almost definitely, say they don’t want presents. But the dads will think, okay, she probably still wants something.
Some dads may decide it’s too difficult to figure things out, so they might take them at their word and just do nothing for Mother’s Day. Other dads might just buy a present anyway, even though their wives asked for no presents. 99% of the time, both of these ideas aren’t what she wants.
But don’t worry. I will gladly be the facilitator who translates “There’s nothing I really want for Mother’s Day but maybe you could do something but I have no idea what that would be,” into a concrete plan. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to give your wife the best Mother’s Day surprise she’s ever had, but you do have to spend some time preparing and planning, which is why the process starts now.
First of all, to understand why her directions are so confusing, imagine that you have an eight-year-old child (maybe you already do.) Imagine that your kid wrote you a card that said, “I love you so much, Daddy! I want to be just like you when I grow up!” Most likely, this would make you pretty happy. But now imagine that you had told your child a week earlier, “I really want you to make me a card telling me that you love me and want to be just like me.” Would the card be nearly as meaningful?
This is basically why your wife is not telling you “Take me to X restaurant, do X for me, then do X.” She needs it to be your idea for it to be meaningful. Now, technically, what follows are my ideas, but she doesn’t know that.
Note that these ideas are centered around moms with younger children who are taking on some childcare duties, as opposed to empty nesters or moms of older and more self-sufficient kids. Also, all of this could work for a father too, so if you are planning way ahead for Father’s Day, this will be useful.
