Helpful Gifts & Ideas for Mother’s Day & Father’s Day

Are you your family’s personal shopper and IT department? If so, we know the feeling. We also know that the gift of help is better than almost any sentimental junk you can buy. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are both coming up, and we’re planning to give our parents practical advice and equipment they actually need. Here are some useful, next-level gift ideas that won’t get shoved into the back of the closet.

For the parent on a fixed income

“To help my mom, I switched her from DSL, which was surprisingly expensive for such slow speeds (and drove me batshit), to cable Internet. Then I bought her our modem and wireless router, which will save her money on renting from the cable company right off the bat.”
—Ganda Suthivarakom, executive editor of Wirecutter

Don’t forget to install it too!

For the doting grandparent

“I bought my mom a Kindle Fire and talked her through the Skype installation process so she could video-chat with her grandson for the first time. Since I live 3,000-plus miles away from them, I also have local friends on call who are willing to help (I offer to buy them dinner) if my mom needs in-person assistance. She's intimidated by the Geek Squad or Apple Geniuses, but my buddy from high school works well for her.”
—Lauren Dragan, headphones editor

Don't just buy a tablet; also preinstall all the programs they would want and explain how to use them.

For the technophobic parent

“In 2012, my mom was super-stubborn and wanted to keep her feature phone instead of getting a smartphone. So instead of explaining to her why that was silly, I just got her an iPad with a data plan, so she could use apps and get accustomed to the idea of a smartphone. It was a good compromise. She finally got an iPhone last year.”
—Michael J Kennelly, updates coordinator

For the bookworm

“My dad was always a voracious reader; he loved his mysteries and suspense thrillers. In his early 80s, though, his eyesight began to deteriorate; first in one eye, then the other. Eventually he couldn't read books anymore, because the print was too small for his limited vision, and he sadly thought his reading days were over. For Father's Day, however, I bought him an e-reader, showed him how to adjust the size of the type to make it larger, and then loaded it with a number of books that he had been wanting to read. He could get only a few lines on each screen at a time, but that was fine; he was super-happy to be reading again."
—Rik Paul, autos editor

A Kindle tablet or an iPad may be even better, thanks to the addition of the Whispersync feature, which links Kindle books with their Audible audiobook counterparts for easy switching between reading and being read to. (Whispersync works with the Kindle Paperwhite, but you have no way to listen to audiobooks from it.) If you own the Kindle book, you can add narration for a reduced price of about $7. Or you can find audio companions for other Kindle books you own.

For the nostalgic parent

“I’m going to organize my father’s mobile photo gathering; he has a Samsung phone with an SD card he always has issues getting images off of. As a result, he has photos scattered across Picasa, Photos (for Mac), and whatever the hell runs on Windows. I’ll probably standardize on something cloudy like Google Photos, since he uses Android. Or I'll use Dropbox as an intermediary for him to access, and then back stuff up to a drive I keep safe someplace.”
—Mike Berk, executive editor, Wirecutter

We have picks for the best film and photo scanning service, as well as a great cloud backup service pick, so you know those memories will still be there no matter what happens to the physical copies.

For the AV geek

“To give my father’s media room the best upgrade it could get, I'm going to give him a universal remote and program it for him. My father has a mishmash of gear in his basement media room. He's a dedicated do-it-yourself person, and he even built his own projector mount and his own screen, but his solution to the pile of remotes is a basket and a cheat sheet of how things are connected. Maybe it works for him, but it doesn't work for my mother or for visiting family. I'm going with a Logitech Harmony Elite, because if you're going to do it, might as well go all the way. Plus, this opens the door to other gifts, such as Philips Hue lights (which the remote can control), later. Because the Harmony Elite comes with IR blasters, allowing you to hide your components, I may try to stash all the gear in a nearby closet (if he lets me). I've already done the homework, and I know all his components and the projector are compatible with the Harmony system. The Harmony app will work on his Android phone, too, though he's sort of a curmudgeon about apps (I really hope he isn't going to read this). Anyway, if he doesn't love it, I'll just call it a late Mother's Day present.”
—Grant Clauser, AV and smart-home editor

For the health-conscious parent

“When our guide to the best water filter pitchers came out, and I saw that my mom's Brita pitcher doesn't clean water as well as the PUR pitcher, I knew this was something I had to get for her this Mother's Day, especially since she lives in an old Metro Detroit house whose pipes predate 1986 (when amendments to the national Safe Drinking Water Act went into effect). I'm also going to test her drinking water before and after, filtering to make sure the lead levels are truly safe.”
—Andrea Mathias, growth editor, Wirecutter

For the foodie

“For my second Mother's Day, I kind of pressured my husband into taking me to a local brunch hotspot. It was a disaster (stood in line for almost two hours with a cranky toddler)! Compare that with my first Mother’s Day, where we grabbed snacks at our favorite restaurant and lounged out in a local park with the baby. It was low-key and stress-free, important for a new mom!”
—Christine Cyr Clisset, editor, Wirecutter

Check out our picnic and grilling guide for all the gear you need for a stress-free brunch.

For the frugal parent

“On a recent trip home, my mother told me that the Chrome browser on the 10-year-old Windows Vista desktop in the basement announced it would no longer be updated. She used this desktop only to print things on the combination fax/copier/printer, itself 15 years old. In my head—and on my phone—the possibilities flew into the shopping cart: Wireless printer? Chromebook? A Windows 7 upgrade, plus more memory for the desktop? Because these were a bit more money, I asked my mom about what kinds of printing she did, and how often. In the end, the solution cost zero dollars and arrived instantly: I switched the browser from Chrome to Firefox.”
—Kevin Purdy, staff writer, Wirecutter

Be sure to listen and to think about the problem at hand before reaching for the credit card.