There comes a time in every man’s life, except for hardened criminals and Eminem, when he… There comes a time in every man’s life, except for hardened criminals and Eminem, when he finally begins to appreciate his mother.

And, as a nearly-21-year-old, I can safely say that I have reached that point. It took many years of ganging up on her with my younger brother, being a big jerk during high school and shrugging off her advice about my drinking habits and selected piercings, but I made it. Yup, I appreciate my mom.

Now, I bring this up not because I had some life-altering viewing of a Hallmark Channel movie or Oprah, but because this week is her birthday, and I simply don’t know what to buy. I can’t buy her clothes because I could never walk into a store and utter, “Hi, do you have this in blue? It’s for my mom.” Nor can I really do something for her, as I am currently the-state-of-Pennsylvania away from home. Because my creativity in this area is terribly limited, I am bounded by what I know: music.

And my mother, bless her soul, is a big fan of mom-rock.

Now you may be asking, “What is mom-rock?” or, “Does mom-rock sound anything like that James Blunt character?” The answers to these two questions would be, respectively, as such: Mom-rock is a brand of soft-rock easily digested by the women who birthed us, as it is utterly non-threatening, breaks no new ground and is considered, by most, to be boring