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It Turns Out That Nearly Half of Moms Regift, Return or Throw Away Their Mother's Day Presents

Survey shows quality time beats most gifts—except jewelry

mothers-day-gift-CONTENT-2017 — Twenty percent of moms prefer time with their kids to anything that comes in a box.Getty Images

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A few years ago, the U.K. humor site Daily Mash published a startling piece of news: The average time adults spent picking out Mother’s Day presents had risen to a whopping three and a half seconds. (Better still, the report added, fewer men were stealing flowers left at crime scenes and cemeteries to rewrap and give to Mom.)

The story was a joke, of course. But how much of a joke? The fact is, most people default to the same gifts for Mother’s Day every single year.