If you've got an inkling that your kids won't get round to buying you something nice for Mother's Day, print this page off and leave it somewhere strategic (like next to the phone, fridge or Nintendo Wii).

Step 1: Set the alarm

There's no point falling out of bed mid-morning and hoping you'll still be in time to make the breakfast. Your mum will have been up for hours by now. Set the alarm nice and early and position it far enough from the bed so that you'll have to get up to turn it off. On no account press the snooze button!

Step 2: Find the kitchen

This is a room where food is prepared. You may not be wholly familiar with it. Remember where the large white object that keeps your drinks cold is? There you go.

Step 3: Presentation is everything

Lay out a breakfast tray with fresh flowers, napkin and cutlery - that way if you mess up the breakfast itself, you'll always get brownie points for having made the effort. Tip - use a cloth napkin. It always looks better than a bit of kitchen roll.

Step 4: Keep It Simple

Trying to lay on a full English breakfast is a quick route to failure. Only the seasoned cook can juggle the various elements of a cooked breakfast to perfection. Instead, brew up a fresh pot of tea, make some nice thick-cut toast and put it all on the tray together with milk, sweetener, jams and butter.

Step 5: Reap The Rewards

Unless your mum is a very suspicious individual, she'll either be beaming from ear to ear or weeping by now at your kind and generous nature. Be sure to savour this moment and remind her of it whenever she asks you to clean your room/turn that music down/ tell you you're not going out dressed like that!

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