Bennett L. Gershman: It's Not About Conscience, It's About Bullying
Conservatives Scoff At Obama's Birth Control Shift
1. Send her love letters. During the week leading up to May 10, mail her a daily list of 10 things you adore about her. They can be written on photos, the packaging of mini soaps, scrapbook pages, or just tied to a flower you drop off on her doorstep. Bring the creative any way you want -- just make it thoughtful.
2. Have an at-home spa day. Forget the $500 package at a swank salon. All you need to do is hit up the drugstore for some pedicure kits, face and hair masques, and body polish. Play one of her favorite books on tape in the background or a soothing instrumental soundtrack to a movie she loves. 
3. Whip up a gourmet brunch. Restaurants will be packed, so why not dine on something much better in the comfort of your pajamas? Upgrade easy dishes, like pancakes with berry puree added to the syrup, mini bacon sliders, fruit salad, crème fraiche, and home fries with rosemary. Serve with mint lemonade or Bloody Marys. Click here for more unusual ways to show mom you care ...
4. Have a girls' night out. Every mom wants a low-key family dinner on Mother's Day, right? Wrong. Every mom wants to feel like the sexy maneater your dad fell for decades ago. So get all dolled up together, and take her to a swanky martini bar, no dads allowed.
Mismatched Celebrity Moms and Daughters
Alexis & Martha Stewart: On her TV show Whatever, Martha, wild child Alexis pokes fun at old episodes of her mother's show. Wonder how uptight homemaker extraordinaire Martha is really taking that.
Getty Images
Sharon & Kelly Osbourne: A no-BS businesswoman, Sharon has always come off as way more polished than her punky-but-shy daughter.
Getty Images
Demi Moore & Tallulah, Rumer and Scout Willis: Though her three girls have caught the acting bug, they're all much more of the tomboy variety than their couture-loving mom.
Getty Images
Courtney Love & Frances Bean Cobain: Frances has talked in interviews about being into a different music scene than both her parents', and says she's more girlie than her grunged-out mom. Plus, as far as we know, no teen drug issues.
Getty Images
Jaid & Drew Barrymore: Drew's mom supposedly couldn't hack it in Hollywood, letting Drew use drugs and alcohol from a young age. We find it hard to believe that Drew, with her uber-sunny personality, would let the same happen to her own daughter.
Getty Images
Cher & Chastity Bono: Cher is over-the-top with her fashion, her larger than life personality and her huge stage persona. In contrast, her lesbian daughter with famous ex Sonny Bono is a low-key writer and LGBT activist.
Getty Images
Jayne Mansfield & Mariska Hargitay: The Playboy pinup was a blonde bombshell who starred in fluffy melodramas before her untimely death. Her daughter is also an actress, but has found career longevity playing SVU cop Olivia Benson. And she did it wearing pants.
Getty Images
Blythe Danner & Gwyneth Paltow: They're both actresses, classy and blonde. But Gwyn married a rock star, making us think she's a little more boho than her straightlaced mom.
Getty Images
Connie & Leighton Meester: US Weekly recently broke news that the always put together Meester was born to her mother in jail. Because she was smuggling pot into the U.S. Normal, yes?
Getty Images
Janet Leigh & Jamie Lee Curtis: Janet started out poor while Jamie was born into the fame her mother earned. "She was green as you can be. I'm about as black as you can be. I'm jaded and time tested and all the things that my mother wasn't," Jamie Lee has said.
Getty Images
6. Show off your green thumbs. Bring over some flats of her favorite flowers and plant them in her yard together. Or buy some herbs and set up an indoor window-sill garden. Clip a few sprigs of the herbs and toss with pasta, tomatoes, grated cheese, garlic and olive oil from a local farmer's market for a low-carbon-footprint feast.
7. Learn something new together. Hire a jewelry maker or tarot card reader to come to your house for an hour and give a how-to, or get free-trial day memberships at a fancy gym and spend an afternoon in classes, like urban rebounding or capoeira. Even a day trip to an off-beat local museum is a fun, unexpected way to bond.
Get a daily dose of ideas you can use to stir up your routine. Just click "grab and share" below to put our Break Out of the Blah widget on your desktop, MySpace, Facebook or blog.
Ever pull off a perfect Mother's Day? Tell us about it in the comments!
