On Mother's Day, practical is not insulting. Cookware, photo albums, gardening equipment - even something as down to earth as a wheelbarrow - all could make a dandy gift for Mom.

Or at least that's how Diane Barlow sees it. When her children give her pots or pans or a roasting rack, she is tickled. "Anything that helps you do your job as a mother," she says, is thoughtful and loving.Other moms agree. When asked if she likes practical presents, Karen Hammer proudly pulls out the apron that 11-year-old Lizzie made for her. She talks also of the hand-decorated stationery and hand-stitched pillowcases she's received.

Practical presents are not necessarily inexpensive. Thirty years ago, when her first child was a baby, Barlow's husband gave her a sewing machine for Mother's Day. Nadine Riddle's husband gave her a sewing machine for Mother's Day, too, when her now-grown children were young. "It was a very extravagant gift," says Riddle. But she doesn't know how she would have raised her children without it.

On the other hand, practical gifts need not be expensive to be a luxury. Riddle talks about another favorite Mother's Day tribute: the ultimate potato peeler. "It's made in Switzerland and it costs $4, which is a lot for a potato peeler," she says. But every time she uses it she feels pampered.

View Comments

Sometimes it's a luxury to be able to count on getting some staple of your life replaced every year. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to count on a new broom every year? Or a new pair of gardening gloves, set of dish towels or a new selection of cloth napkins? Fourteen-year-old Scott Linton says his mother, Jane, seems happy to get the practical present he gives her every year. It's always the same - a spatula. Linton's friend, Spencer Glissmeyer, says he gave his mother, Ann, a laundry basket last year.

A youngster's definition of a practical gift may differ from an adult's definition. When asked for the most practical gift she's ever given her mother, Lizette Valenzuela says Esther will be getting earrings from her again this year. She is being practical to buy earrings, the 13-year-old says, because no one else in the family (possibly including Esther herself) knows what style best suits her mother.

And Jason Barlow, Diane's youngest child, wonders aloud why his mother is talking about roasting racks and sewing machines, when he himself has given her the most practical Mother's Day gift of all and she didn't even mention it.

When he was 7 years old, he says, it took him a long time to save enough money to buy his mother a battery pack for her Game Boy video game.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.