Gentlemen, get ready. It's Mother's Day on Sunday and you better get it right. Not with your mom - with the mother of your children.
"You can't just let it slide [with your wife]and think it's going to go unnoticed," says James Bassil, editor-in-chief of AskMen.com. And don't just phone it in with some "World's Greatest Mom" coffee mug. "You want to stay away from reinforcing her maternal role," Mr. Bassil says. Instead, give her a break from being a mom.
It's a bit cliché, Mr. Bassil says, but take her to the spa and tell her how gorgeous she looks when you pick her up. "If she comes out of the spa and she's greeted by you saying, 'Wow, you look superhot. You look really sexy and beautiful,' that's the way to really nail it."
If she mentioned a restaurant a few weeks ago that she's interested in, make a reservation. If she name-dropped an author last month, buy her one of his books. You want to go for gifts that are "emblems of how much you think about [her] how you pay attention to the little details even though she thinks you neglect them," Mr. Bassil says.
If you haven't been able to lock down a good gift in time, just taking the kids for the day while your wife does whatever she wants is going to be much appreciated.
But remember, you're being judged relative to all the other husbands out there. Your wife and her friends are going to swap stories, so you want to win her points in her social circle.
"She gets to say to her friends, 'Check out what he did for Mother's Day.' … And her friends are going to hate that. It's going to drive them crazy, and she'll like that."