Twas the night before Mother’s Day… are you headed to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head?
If you’re dreaming of waking up to a clean house, a new Dyson, hot breakfast on a tray served to you by non-bickering children and a bouquet of perky tulips, you may want to take an extra Ambien before you hit the hay tonight.
Take two if you are relying on your husband to produce your Mother’s Day loot.
According a recent poll conducted by PlumDistrict.com, 44 percent of dads forget to deliver a single rose on Mother’s Day.
That’s right; nearly half of the site’s respondents admit to forgetting to honor mom entirely.
Oddly, the National Retail Federation (NRF) just released its yearly Mother’s Day spending survey which found that America’s moms, grandmothers, and other special ladies will feel the love tomorrow to the tune of $18.6 billion. That translates to roughly $152 per mom on goods that range from flowers and cards to restaurant brunch and dinner, plus popular electronic devices, such as digital cameras and smartphones.
All tolled, the NRF says Mother’s Day spending is up 8 percent over last year.
Really?
Well, if nearly 50 percent of dads claim they forget the holiday all together, then who’s spending all this cash on mom?
According to the NRF survey, respondents included moms, stepmoms, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, friends and godmothers.
In other words, moms are fueling the spending growth by purchasing gifts for other moms.
It’s a classic case of female-to-female gift swapping.
Or in some cases, moms are simply buying their own gifts.
After 14 years of getting the same sad bouquet of drooping daisies, a former co-worker of mine finally gave up on her husband and started buying her own Mother’s Day gifts. She’d pick out a few accessories, wrap them herself, and place them on the dining room table for her kids to present to her on Sunday morning.
I guess that’s one way of avoiding disappointment.
While the NRF reveals that flowers are the most popular Mother’s Day purchase (followed by gift cards, clothing, jewelry and spa treatments), over at PlumDistrict.com, eight out of ten of the 19,000 women polled said they would happily give up any and all Mother’s Day loot in exchange for a little peace and quiet.
Apparently, what mom really wants is to sleep in on Mother’s Day.
What are you hoping to score tomorrow?