Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture
  3. Evergreens

Treat your mom the right way this Mother’s Day with these best of the best picks

These are my best picks to make your mom happy

fitness family cycling dad mom kid
RDNE / Pexels

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

If your mom is anything like mine, she is a brilliantly strong and capable woman who had to put up with a lot of crap thanks to my ability to be an absolute terror. Since she had to put up with nearly two dozen years of chasing, protecting, and disciplining someone who decided at the moment he could walk, it wasn’t gonna be easy; any gift I give her for Mother’s Day has to be out of this world. Now, while I understand there is no way to repay a mother for the lifetime of putting up with a rowdy boy (and admittedly into the man years), these best of the best gifts are a great start to narrowing the gap.

Elevate your mom’s sleep: NELL Mattresses

We all know that sleep is incredibly important. But one in three adults sleeps on the wrong mattress, or at least one that is terribly overdue to be replaced. And since you and I both likely spent the majority of our teenage years robbing our parents of hours of sleep, it is time to repay them. NELL uses Japanese technology to encourage movement in your sleep to help promote temperature regulation, pressure relief, and muscle recovery.

Elevate her jewelry box: Pandora

Product Label: Featured Partner Offer
Accessories, Jewelry, Necklace
Pandora
Recommended Videos

Of course, your mom is probably expecting something run-of-the-mill for Mother’s Day, and you may be thinking that jewelry fits the bill. However, Pandora is the top of the line when it comes to dropping her jaw. Anything on the site will do all the heavy lifting on Mother’s Day, but my pick of the bunch is this pendant with an inscription on the back. If this pendant isn’t your mom’s vibe, not to worry, there are dozens of options to choose from. Two of my other favorites are the Entwined Heart & Butterfly Pendant Necklace and the Signet Ring. Don’t skimp on the jewelry; make her forget all the times you gave her an ulcer. We’re all for a little bribery.

Simplify her life: Tumble Washable Rugs

Every time I go to my mother’s, I am hit with the shoe dilemma. They are part of my outfit. Did I wear good socks? Are they dirty? I will likely have to explain to my mother that, at 43, I am still the guy who struggles to do his laundry. A new pair of socks is cheaper than the water to run the wash anyway, right? Of course, on the other hand, I will track dirt all over her nice, clean rug. Tumble is the solution. The whole goal of Tumble is to make rugs that look better than the ones she has, but are easier to maintain. Just pick it up and toss it in the washing machine. I know what you’re thinking: Is this for her? Or for your shoes? I mean, can’t two things be true at the same time?

Kickstart her morning: Breville Coffee

When I went home over the holidays, I noticed that breakfast was on the table the moment I woke up. I was awake at 8 am, and biscuits and gravy isn’t a quick and easy fix for six people. My mom was up at, what I am assuming, was 4 am. All I know is that she was up before the sun, and therefore coffee has to be a huge part of her morning routine. Coffee is a staple, and therefore, the right coffee machine is vital to making sure your mom stays effective. Breville takes everything your coffee machine does and makes it look like a simple machine from the 60s. If the Artemis shuttle was going to take a coffee pot to the moon, it would be a Breville.

Go all out with a getaway: Sun Siyam Resorts

OK. Go ahead, buy your mom a mattress, rug, and coffee maker for her house. Buy her a pendant for her jewelry box. Or, you can stop the small steps to paying her back and even the score by whisking her off to the Maldives for a weekend in a villa over the water. Indian food, turquoise water, and no reason to wait on you hand and foot. Sun Siyam Resorts knows how to make everyone feel right at home, and with the water right outside her door, she won’t give you a second thought after giving you a pass on any future ruination of her rug.

Change her space: ScentAir Whisper Home Diffuser

Smell is the most powerful sense that we have. It can spark memories and take us back to a better time. That is why the way a room smells is so important. Your mom spent years overcoming the scent of a teenager so her space could feel welcoming to her and everyone else she liked to host. Gift her the solution with something that does the work for her. Good for spaces up to 800 feet, one large room or two medium-sized rooms, it provides light fragrances at the touch of an app. No guesswork, no overpowering scents, just cool and easy memories through fragrance.

Mark cut his teeth in the men’s style world when he sold suits first at box stores such as Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank… Read Full Bio
The Manual Library: 10 action franchises to pass the cold weekends
Cross

Guys need to read more. Every time I start doomscrolling on TikTok or Instagram, the BookTok world is almost exclusively curated for women. That is why we need to start pushing our love for the bang-bang shoot-’em-ups. The debonair spy. The man on his own, cut off from all help, with only his skills and his wits to help him overcome the obstacles between him and his mission. As men, we love these escapes from the mundane lives and diving into the hero fantasy we all have. When women talk about the mental load they carry every day, men are usually creating our own mental load with safety and security: “What would I do if someone attacked from here? Or there?” Really, what we’re asking is, “What would Jason Bourne do?”

I tend to live in this place in my head when I need to escape from the world, but it is more fun to read about it. As the weather begins to turn and our evenings and weekends are colder and darker, we need something to occupy our time to get us from now until we can escape to the great outdoors in the spring. Here are some action and adventure book recommendations to get your heart going and quench that hero fantasy without doing anything dangerous.

Read more
5 lessons the military teaches you that you don’t learn in school
Saving Private Ryan

This is not a knock on public school. I went to public school. I liked public school. There is a system of life training built into the social fabric of school where we learn a lot about ourselves and the lives we are about to live. But the truth is we don’t learn a lot about life from the actual curriculum in the classroom. We learn that Paul Revere rode through the streets to alarm everyone that the British were coming. We learned that A squared plus B squared equals C squared. We even learned what an electron is. But there are precious little practical life lessons you can take with you. For me, I picked a lot of those through movies (a lot of parents are shaking their heads right now, but don’t knock it completely; there is a lot you can learn from movie perspectives) and my time in the United States Army.

The military teaches you a ton of practical life skills that will elevate your life when applied to your day-to-day. Here are five of them with a couple bonuses at the end.

Read more
Coffee is for closers: How Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross’s iconic scene teaches you more than sales
Alec Baldwin

There are moments in movies that stand the test of time. They are the first thing we think of when someone uses a turn of phrase or references something that sends your brain down the rabbit hole of movie quotes. These become cultural stalwarts and embed themselves into the very collective consciousness of our society. Some become known for certain industries. Wanna know what law enforcement is like? Check out Training Day or End of Watch. Wanna know what being a firefighter is like? Press play on Backdraft. How about military life? Full Metal Jacket, Jarhead, or Officer and a Gentleman. Want realism? Don’t watch any of them. But what about sales? There are a dozen movies that can teach you how to sell. Boiler Room. The Wolf of Wall Street. But none of them are as iconic as Glengarry Glen Ross. In fact, one scene in that movie every salesman should watch. Blake’s 8-minute tongue-lashing at the office underachievers.

Alec Baldwin took less than ten minutes to cement himself in the lexicon of sales mentors. Walking into the office, he looks at Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon, and Alan Alda and rips them to shreds when one pours himself some coffee.

Read more