Gifts

This post is an update of the previous one.

Here are the Mother’s Day gifts I received from The Girl and The Boy.

From The Boy’s school’s Mother’s Day stall is the face-washer folded with cardboard to look like an evening bag, with smelly soap inside, and a silk flower brooch pinned on it.

Also from The Boy, a milo tin that he decorated in art class

A mobile phone case that The Girl made for me out of some flannelette scraps and bias binding that she found in my sewing table.  This is so I can wear my new phone around my neck.

Another gift that The Girl made.  This is a still life fruit bowl painted on a slice of wood from a tree her friend’s father chopped down.  Although it is not intended to be an I Spy type of painting, it apparently contains a strawberry, a blueberry, a raspberry, a lemon, a peach, and some nuts

A paper fan that The Boy decorated at Bunnings with the Joey Scouts.  Notice that it is already falling apart

And my final gift.  A paper fan that The Girl made at Bunnings with her Cub Scout group.  The Girl pointed out that her fan is also breaking.

Sadly, The Girl was too sick to go to school on friday, and so she missed the Mother’s Day stall at her school.   I am both relieved and disappointed at the same time that The Girl was not able to buy me a cheesy gift.

Please don’t misjudge me.  I am very happy that the kids thought enough of me to make me gifts.   They are very pleased with their gifts and could not wait for me to open them.

Yes, the majority of the gifts will be going straight to the proverbial pool room.

I’ll hang the wood painting up on the wall.

When we take the dogs for a walk this afternoon I will proudly wear my mobile phone pouch.

The Milo tin will sit proudly on the kitchen counter to be used as a cookie jar.

I’ll hang the face washer purse up in the bathroom as a bathroom decoration for a short while, then pull it apart to use the face-washer.  I’ll pin the flower brooch on the jacket that I wear for taking The Boy to school.

But alas, the paper fans are too fragile to either use or display.   I will wrap them gently in tissue paper and place them at the bottom of one of my dresser drawers with all the other home made cards and gifts to be carefully preserved until I die.

My kids love me, and for that I am truly thankful.

Dread

Mother’s Day is nearly upon us.

And I am dreading it.

So why the dread you ask.  Because along with Mother’s Day comes the Mother’s Day Stall at the kids schools.

Mother’s Day Stalls – a place for kids to use their mum’s money to buy cheap, ugly and/or useless crap for their mothers.

I’ve been recruited to help with the Mother’s Day Stall at The Boy’s school.   Whilst I have been asked to help out, I was not asked to advise on nor comment on the quality of  the gifts on offer.

I know what you are thinking, they can’t be that bad.  After all, all gifts are selling at just $5.00, so you can’t expect a diamond tennis bracelet or an iphone.

But yes, the gifts are that bad.  Amongst the offerings are:

- a face washer folded and sewn to look like an evening bag (complete with faux chain handle), with smelly  soap inside.  Unfortunately, in this case smelly does not mean nicely perfumed.

- an ugly pot holder folded into a triangle and sewn up to be used as a scissor holder, comes complete with a $1.00 pair of scissors.

- small organza beaded bag with smelly soap inside.

- ugly kitchen towels

- coffee cup with very small whisk

Coffee cup and whisk sounds ok eh?  Yea, unless you have a whole cupboard full of coffee cups, plus more stored away in a box somewhere, and you don’t even drink coffee or tea.  And how many uses can you think of for a 10cm whisk?

The Girl’s school is taking a different tact to the whole Mother’s Day Stall idea.

Instead of providing gifts for the kids to purchase the kids are to bring in a gift to be sold at the stall, and then spend their money to purchase the stuff that other kids have brought in.

This could be a great idea, lots of nice gifts sent in by mothers who would be delighted to receive such a gift.

But no, I highly doubt that that will be the case.  The note that came home states “you might have a gift in a cupboard that mum might not need anymore” and “your neighbour, aunty or grandma may be cleaning out their cupboards and find a treasure to sell”.

So I read this as really meaning “here’s a chance to re-gift all those unwanted crappy gifts that you’ve received in the past”  But of course that also means that the gifts on offer for The Girl and her friends to buy will be someone else’s rejects.   Imagine that lovely potpourri sachet or souvenir place-mat set that grandma received in 1979 and considered too special to use so she put it in her linen cupboard where it has been sitting for the past 30 years.  Oh Joy.

Either way, I’m screwed.

Yet, either way, come Sunday, I will claim to one and all that the gifts bought from the Mother’s Day Stalls were “Fantastic, Just What I Wanted and Needed”.  And of course the kids will be highly praised for choosing excellent gifts.

And then the gifts are going straight to the pool room.