Funny gifts for Mom

Moms are hard to shop for because they say they don’t want anything, and they mean it. They also mean the opposite. Both are true at once, which is what Because I Said So. is about.

The book collects 500 things your mom said, with translations. “Put a sweater on, I’m cold.” Translation: Mom’s temperature is the official temperature. “Let me feel your forehead.” Translation: Mom’s hand is a medical-grade thermometer. The chapters run from Rules of the House through The Countdown, The Dinner Table and The Car, ending on the soft ones, because she meant those too.

It’s a birthday gift that proves you were listening, all those years when you seemed not to be. It works from a daughter, a son, the grandkids or a partner. It’s illustrated on every spread, printed in full color, and has fill-in pages at the back for the sayings that are only hers.

She will read it in one sitting, point at three pages and say “I never said that.” She did. It’s in the book.