Take a look at this gift guide to find a Mother’s Day present she’ll love like a horse loves hay.
Restaurant brunches or birthstone bracelets are nice gifts for Mother’s Day. But restaurants are often a long ol’ way away from the ranch, so a reservation turns a pleasant midmorning meal into a road trip. Just scramble a few eggs, mix up orange juice concentrate, and carry Mom’s plate to the table for her.
Jewelry is pretty to unwrap, but impractical for everyday wear. Diamonds can fall into the mud when working cows, never to be seen again. Don’t ask me how I know — ask my mom, because that actually happened to her wedding ring.
Here are a few gift ideas that ranch moms will appreciate.
Gift certificate for day care
Every mom would appreciate a day off once in a while, right? There are likely no day care facilities within an hour’s drive of the ranch, but this gift will make an excellent fire starter. That might be even more valuable than childcare help, since many ranch houses (including ours) depend entirely on wood heat. We’ve lived down roads so rugged that the propane guy wouldn’t make deliveries from November to March. Out here, saving scraps of paper and filling the woodshed are more important than finding a reliable babysitter. It’s even better if the kids are around because they can split kindling, but only if the hatchet is sharp enough to freak out the town moms.
Bouquet of wildflowers
No notes to improve this idea — moms always love fistfuls of flowers delivered by grubby little hands. Blooming weeds make an acceptable substitute for flowers and will be displayed in a place of honor at the center of the kitchen table. My bouquets are usually stuffed inside a blue plastic pitcher my mom got at a Tupperware party in the ‘90s. I make sure to rinse out the orange juice concentrate before adding flowers.
Maybe a nice vase would be a good addition to this gift.
House chores
Before this is misinterpreted, I don’t mean you should give your mom more house chores. That would not be appreciated, especially coming from my own kids. That would be very bad for the kids.
It means you should do house chores for your mom. As much as moms like a clean house, we also enjoy not being the ones to clean the it. This will free up her time to ride her horse, work on her garden, read a book, get her nails done, or wander a shopping mall without once stopping to frantically search a clothing rack for her small child who is quietly playing an unannounced game of hide-and-seek.
An injury-free day
This probably applies more to boy moms than ranch moms. Between broken arms, concussions, and stitches on various parts of their bodies, I have taken each of my two sons to the emergency room many more times than I have taken my daughter. Whenever they start to roughhouse or open a pocketknife, I yell, “Be careful, I do NOT want to go to the hospital tonight!” They’ll learn to practice safety first, not because of the negative long-term effects of serious injuries on the human body, but because their mother was tired and didn’t feel like driving after dark.
