By Her View From Home 
If you live far away from Mom, it may be hard to stay in touch with her on a regular basis or to keep her as involved in your life as you might like to. Of course, when Mother’s Day rolls around, you want to make the day all about Mom, but you might feel a bit limited with so much space between you.
To make Mother’s Day special, even from far away, consider taking a unique approach to the Mother’s Day celebration:
Have a Skype Date
Set up a long web chat appointment with Mom beforehand over Skype or any free Internet phone service. Spend the time chatting, venting, and catching up, or plan a particular activity to do “together.” For example, you could send photos back and forth to each other to look at together. To really make Mom’s day, set a regular weekly or monthly Skype date to catch up or coordinate with your siblings or other family members to participate in a group video chat all at once.
Set Up a Flower Delivery
Plan in advance to have flowers or other things like candy or fruit baskets delivered to Mom’s door with a company like ProFlowers. But don’t forget the personalized note; a really special note is the kind of thing that makes this gift really special. Or surprise Mom by having flowers sent to her office the Friday before Mother’s Day.
Make a “Care Package”
Remember how Mom would send you boxes of treats and special things when you were away at camp, college, or your first place on your own? Return the gesture by sending Mom a Mother’s Day care package. This could include gifts like:
- Framed photos or a photo album.
- Drawings and notes from you, your family, and your kids. Have your kids work together on a “We Love Grandma” book full of notes and drawings about your mom.
- Nice soaps, lotions, candles, perfumes, etc.
- Chocolates, cookies, candy, and other treats that can be easily shipped.
- Movies, CDs, books, etc.
You could also consider making a nostalgia package. This might be especially poignant if something significant has happened this year. For example, maybe your mother just became a grandmother, or maybe you just turned 30, meaning your mom has been a mother for 30 years. Make her a nostalgia package with things like:
- Pictures with her own mother next to pictures of your mother with you or with your child.
- Copies of your child’s hospital foot prints and hospital bracelet in a custom photo frame or an album.
- Things that might have been significant when you were young or when she was young. Your favorite baby toy, for example.
- A joke gift about her food cravings when she was pregnant. For example, when my mom was pregnant she would eat bowls of tortilla chips and peanut M&Ms, so a fancy bag of tortilla chips and M&Ms tied up with a ribbon would probably make her laugh!
Plan a Book Club with Mom
If you and Mom are both readers, set up a reading list with her and order a copy of each book for her and for yourself, one month at a time and schedule a date to talk over web chat about the book. You can also sign her up for a book subscription service like Oyster so she’ll have unlimited options for the whole year. Structure the book club so that you choose one book and she chooses the next. That way, you will each expand the other’s horizons.
If you aren’t readers, plan something else. For example, you could have wine tasting or chocolate tasting club. Each month, one of you chooses a wine and you each go out and buy it, and then taste it together over web chat.
Finding Ways to Make Mom Feel Special
You can both promise to try and make plans to be together on Mother’s Day next year to make up for being apart. When it comes down to it, as long as you make Mom feel like the star of the day, the distance won’t seem nearly so bad! Most likely, what Mom really wants is just to spend time with you so finding a way to connect is the most important thing.
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