Mother’s Day gift giving

Hope you called your moms or sent them something nice. My folks are visiting again and I am going to give my mom some flowers I got at the florist this afternoon.

I used to think flowers were one of the least meaningful things you could give someone. I mean, if I had to choose between flowers or something practical like a Brita filter, I would choose the Brita. And I assumed other people would as well.

The two most important things I’ve learned about gift giving are:

1. Other people tend to like things for incomprehensible reasons. “If I were [so-and-so], I would love this,” is a useless strategy. Better to take a behaviorist approach–what gifts (stimuli) would likely elicit positive responses, based on past observations?
2. The less practical the gift (e.g. flowers, jewelry, candy, a nice dinner), the more meaning is associated with it. It may seem extravagant and wasteful, but that is the point–it’s always nice to have someone spend frivolously on you.

Anyone else have tips about gift giving? Or how to show appreciation to your “oh don’t get anything for me” moms?