Put meaning into Mother's Day

This morning I was flipping through a newspaper when a Mother’s Day ad caught my eye. It was a page full of drool-worthy items, all packaged up as “Great Gift Ideas for Mom.” The list included: a $160 (gulp!) cotton tunic from a chic boutique; a yoga mat with an ironically stress-inducing price tag; and numerous little baubles that each broke the $100 mark (gulp, again.)
Reality check: It’s time for a reality check on our consumerism. What happened to macaroni necklaces, a hand-picked bunch of wild flowers and home-made cards? They’ve sadly gone out of fashion in our society’s collective need to accumultive more and more stuff.
Don’t get me started on how half of it ends up in landfill or second-hand stores  (surely someone other than me must want this cast off) – not to mention all the water and energy expended on making all the “things” that clutter our lives.
Striking a balance: I’m a mom whose lucky enough to still have my mom around. I love Mother’s Day. And, OK., I’ll fess up and admit that I’m not pining for a macaroni necklace, and I’d prefer my flowers to stay firmly planted in my garden. But I stand firm in my belief that the best Mother’s Day gifts give twice.
Here are my top picks … I hope some of them make it onto your list.
A WWF stuffie. No one’s ever really too old for a stuffie. WWF has a whole collect of adorable animals to chose from, and the money from the symbolic adoption goes to our great conservation work. (My favourite is this elephant.). $40

A gift for a living planet: Your donation of $50 can help a Spirit Bear thrive. You can also chose to help rebuild Atlantic cod populations, or keep a polar bear cool.
Make a donation to our Canadians for the Great Bear campaign. Your support can be given on behalf of a mom you love, and it will help stop a pipeline and super tankers in this ecologically senstive and precious region.

 
Become a Canadian for the Great Bear – or sign up a mom you know would be passionate about this cause.
Monthly dononations. Give the gift of conservation 12 months of the year.
Kathryn Dorrell is mom to Olivia and Sophie, and the editor-in-chief at WWF-Canada.