There is a whole cast of ladies in your life to shop for. Most of those ladies like your mom, sister or best friend are pretty easy to shop for. You know those ladies inside out, so you can find exactly what she would enjoy, and chances are your gift will be accepted at face value without considering the “symbolism.” The trickiest lady to shop for tends to be your boyfriend’s mom or your mother-in-law. The stakes are just a little bit higher, and the occasions are frequent. There’s Mother’s Day, her birthday, and Christmas. The gift has to come at the right point in the relationship, as well as be big enough to be meaningful but not come off as sucking up. Basically, you need to find a gift at an acceptable price point, and that no matter how much it is analyzed and over-thought the gift is hard to be offended by. This is where the symbolism comes into play. I mean what if you get her perfume or a nice luxury soap set and she thinks “oh so I smell bad? How rude!” Or what if you pick up a sweater in the wrong size and she thinks “oh so you think I’m fat. Cool.” Shopping for your mother-in-law or boyfriend’s mom can be an absolute minefield, and the line between generic and way too personal is easy to cross. 

The first shopping pitfall to avoid is price. You don’t want to spend too little, but you also don’t want to splurge because that can be misinterpreted too. So gifts in the $100-200 range are probably a pretty safe bet. Buying gifts that can be used in the home, and can be enjoyed by those who live in her home are also a good choice. It shows that you’ve put some thought into the functionality of her home and her life, and will probably end up being useful. In this case though, it’s important to go with neutral colours that will match in any home. All the whites, greys, blacks, and beiges are perfect and will blend in in anyone’s home regardless of how eclectic it may be. If you look for something relatively innovative and can make life a little bit easier, but won’t require a degree to figure out you’ve probably hit the gift jackpot. 

There are a couple of gift ideas that hit all these boxes, all of which can be found on the website www.itsnerd.com. The Smart Brewer is a good gift choice, especially if your boyfriend’s mom is a big tea drinker. It ticks all the boxes, right price, right colour, and it’s both functional and pretty innovative. She’ll be able to make her perfect cup of tea and control the whole process from her phone! Another product to consider could be the Smart Pot and little smart planter so she could grow all sorts of herbs and spices without the stress of remembering to water the plants, and ensure that they’re okay and growing in their ideal conditions. The planter does that for her, and having beautiful plants around the house that can be used to cook is basically a double gift. The planter also hits the criteria points. If these two items aren’t necessarily your boyfriend’s mom or mother-in-laws thing, there are also plenty of other choices on the It’s NERD website that she will be sure to fall in love with!