How to Get What You Want for Mother’s Day

Some view Mother's Day as an entire day dedicated to mom, a day for her to do whatever she wants. Others view it as a day of gifting, a day when mom is showered with elaborate presents. We see it as both. The key is to spend the appropriate amount of time with her so she feels like a queen and then present her with a gift that she can use on a day that is not Mother's Day (because why limit the love to just one day?). The gift of time, the gift of organized closets, the gift of a new car...all of these are within your reach if you read our guide on How to Get What You Want for Mother's Day.

Picture this scenario: waking up the morning of Mother's Day to a perfectly organized home. All the children's old clothes, toys, odd socks, books, soccer shorts and cleats have been magically sorted, purged and delivered to a new owner. Current and off-season clothing has been cleaned, folded and put away, and those random items that used to spill out of closets have been labelled and placed in easily accessible bins.

We enjoy nights out with our beloved, but what we'd really like is for them to take the reins and plan the entire evening—while reading our mind on every detail, of course. This includes: booking the kids' preferred sitter, reserving the restaurant we've been dying to go to, knowing who and who not to invite to meet us for a drink or coffee after, paying the sitter, driving him/her home then letting us sleep in the next morning.

We don't mean the kind that comes compliments of an American Express Black Card (we'll take it though). We mean a whole day to do exactly as we please—settling in for an entire season of House of Cards, Homeland or any cooking show on HGTV, uninterrupted; waking up on our schedule, no one else's; lounging on the deck while reading the latest book club selection, cover to cover; having a four-hour lunch with our best friend; or going for a long run, followed by a long shower without worrying about pick up time at preschool.

We don't mean a miracle to improve the way we look in photos. We mean never having to worry about what to do with all the wonderful family pictures we take daily, then store for months on our phones and hard drives. Wouldn't it be spectacular to have someone besides us patiently and perfectly organize, catalogue, print, file or frame our favourites, and put them up for everyone to enjoy?

Home is where the heart is. It's also where a heck of a lot of unfinished projects reside, taunting us day after day as they cross our line of sight. In a perfect world, an interior designer and contractor appear together at our house one morning (but not until 11 am so we've had a stellar sleep-in) with just-the-right paint colour for the bedroom, tile choice for the backsplash, artwork for over the fireplace and lighting fixture for the dining room.

The last time we dropped the kids off at school, we parked around the block so no one could see the collection of goldfish crackers, winter mitts, summer sun hats, empty take-out food containers, old clothing donations, overdue library books, rain boots, hockey sticks and sparkly purses (compliments of your 3 year old daughter), all crammed into the front and back of our car. We'd love a cleaned out vehicle that looks like new (or at least looks like it was scrubbed with a toothbrush).

We'd like one of those days where we feel our absolute best—physically. No morning sickness (particularly if pregnant), exhaustion, sore backs from rocking the babe to sleep for hours, bags under our eyes, rebound cough and/or flu the kids have and keep giving back to us. Essentially, we'd like a full day of feeling 25 again. Fair enough?

Sticking to a healthier lifestyle (like Gwyneth and Oprah, for example) would be so much easier if someone else prepared all the food for us. We wouldn't be tempted by the kids' half-eaten grilled cheese or that last Oreo in the box if we had fresh salads, sandwiches, power-smoothies and sweet-but-still-good-for-us snacks just lying around, waiting for us (and the rest of our family, of course) whenever hunger strikes.