Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Asante Mama… 

…is our theme for this year’s Mother’s Day. Aside from all the schmaltzy emotionally indulgent stuff out there, we do feel the need to celebrate Mama at least once a year. 

My mother is direct. She’s strong, a rock sometimes, hard to squeeze any tears out of, quite stubborn, unrelentingly supportive, bossy with the best intentions, and always ready to whip up a batch of meringues for any party.

As I was setting up Greenspoon, my mother was literally by my side, almost daily, helping steer this ship. She’s a big reason for its success, nevermind that over the years she has spent most of her income on shopping with us. 

She stood by as I got distracted, then gently steered me back to the main point of the business. “Remember darling, everyone will have brilliant ideas about what you should be doing, but if you listen to them all you’ll lose your way”. For someone who hadn’t been an entrepreneur, it made me realise that she had all the makings of a great one, and that however much she might be living vicariously through me, well why not? We joke that she’s Head of Marketing Rift Valley Region, but seriously she is. If you get accosted by her at a party or a meeting, by the end of it you’ll have made an order on Greenspoon, and she’ll be satisfied that she’s done her job. 

Her eyes smile even when her mouth doesn’t. She’s unbelievably kind, and goes out of her way to look after other people. She may be direct, and say exactly what she thinks (that comes from her mother’s side of the family and my aunt is afflicted with even less quality control between brain and mouth), but you always know where you stand. That’s important I’ve realised, as I’ve become a mother. Your children don’t need ambiguity, they need complete security and part of that is knowing when you’ve crossed the line. 

As a mother, I hope I can do half the job mine has done. She raised my brother and I as a single mother for a few years after my father died of a brain tumour, and then married my step-father who has been a Dad to me since. She’s remained strong, the one in the family who understands DIY and finances, gardening and practical things like sewing. I gave her a screwdriver and hammer set for Christmas when I was about 18, and to this day it sits in the top drawer, waiting for an opportunity to be useful – which happens about once a week. It is not unusual to come home to find her in the kitchen, head in the dishwasher, fixing something or other. Either that or she’s rolling pasta out by hand, and immediately hands over to one of the children as she dashes into the kitchen to get us all a glass of water. She treats our children like they know what they’re doing, and funnily enough, they step up to that. Of course it helps that knowing what you’re doing when you’re making chocolate biscuit cake or meringues involves a lot of licking the spoon. 

However you celebrate your Mum, we’d love to know about it! Drop us a line and tell us how amazing she is, and we might send you one of these hampers to give her this Mother’s Day.