John Cowan - What to do for Mum?

Mothers Day – another opportunity for us men to show our complete incompetence in gift buying.

We all know that our life is being constantly spied on by marketers, collecting data so that businesses can make more dough out of us. It’s not often that we get to benefit from this but I recently saw some consumer data on addthis.com about new Mums’ behaviour that might help us get it right on Mothers’ day.

For a start, compared with average consumers, new Mums use their cars far more. How about something nice for her car on Mother’s day? Or an audiobook or a Spotify subscription to listen to whilst driving.

New Mums click on websites that deal  with health, fitness and nutrition three and half times more than other women: maybe some nice novel-but-healthy food-treats  – there’s all sorts of weird stuff at health food shops – or cooking a meal for her or some nice fitness gear might be good (not that I ever felt confident making clothing choices for my wife).

New Mums read more books and magazines – I mean real ones made of paper – and are more than twice as keen on home decorating, too; so… I know gift cards might sound a little like a cop-out but I’m thinking you couldn’t go too far wrong with one from a mag shop or decorators.  

Finally, marketers tell us Mums are super keen on photos. Why not download a few from your lady’s Instagram or Facebook and print and frame them?

What would life be like without Mums? Inconceivable! Let’s make fuss of them.

About John

John has been with The Parenting Place (www.theparentingplace.com) for seventeen years as their senior writer and presenter.  He had various roles working with youth and families prior to that but actually started his working life as a scientist in neurophysiology at Auckland Hospital.  As well as writing and speaking, John is frequently on radio and television.