Mother’s Day and the iPad

A little over a week ago, I was with my wife and we were discussing what to get my Mom for mother’s day. For the past two years, we’ve been wanting to get her an iMac for either Christmas or her birthday. Of course, that’s a lot of money, and it’s not like we could afford that then, or now, really. So I casually say to my wife, “You know, we should get her an iPad.” She looked me right in the eyes and said, “Let’s do it!” 30 minutes later, I was walking out of the Apple Store with a 16GB iPad.

I had to keep this all hush-hush for a week, even though I did hint around about it  last week. I hate keeping secrets, so this killed me. I knew she’d be upset that we spent so much money on her, but she’s helped my wife and I out a lot with our newborn, so I figured it was time to splurge. We planned the big surprise, and then popped it on her right before dinner. She choked back tears, and thanked us.

Now when I get a present, I usually spend the next hour playing with it (it’s a habit I’ve had since I was 5). My mother though, usually passes on the gift and goes on her way. This time, she spent a good hour, maybe an hour and a half entranced with the iPad. I walked her through every step, every app, and every different way to do things. It was awesome. She didn’t spend a lot of time on the iPod or Video portions of the device, she was more interested in Photos and iBooks. She loved them both, and is very excited about it. Frankly, I can’t wait to see what she does with it.

I still want to get her a Mac, but until that happens, I figure we’ll see what she does with the iPad. I can’t wait.