Phaedra Parks has raised two lavish gift gifters.
There was the handmade floral brooch her youngest son crafted in preschool: “It looked more like a flower that vomited, but I loved it,” said Ms. Parks, the reality television star who was on the last season of “The Traitors” and is currently a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.” Her sons gave her chocolate $100 bills, wrapped in actual $100 bills. “You like money and you like chocolate,” her sons said, “so we thought you would like chocolate bills.”
Now that the kids are older (14 and 11), their gifts are a bit more sophisticated. Ms. Parks discusses the Mother’s Day diamond bracelet that she ended up subsidizing. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Tell me about your bracelet.
I think it’s a 20-carat diamond bracelet, and my sons picked it out for me. They know I love diamonds. Well, I actually had to buy it. Because being children, they said, “Oh, this is you, Mom. It looks so good on you. You have to have it.” And when [the salesperson] told them the price, they said, “We can never afford that.”
So that’s — gifts are about the process behind it. It’s very sentimental to me.
How did they choose this piece specifically?
Well, you know what, they love the jewelry store. I have been talking about a diamond bracelet forever.
It was on display and my sons just zoomed right in. It’s from Icebox, which is a very popular jewelry store. This is the funny thing: He [the salesman] was calling out numbers, and so they said, “Oh, it’s 78.” So my kids were thinking that meant $7,800. My oldest son said, “Mom, we have that in savings. We’ve got it taken care of.” But then, we got to the register, it was more zeros than that.
Was that for this Mother’s Day?
Yes. But, generally, every Mother’s Day, they give me some sort of customized piece of jewelry. So last year they gave me an adjustable, interesting gold chain. That was really pretty. A few years before that, they gave me one with their birthdays on it, with emeralds. But this, by far, is my favorite piece, because it’s lots of diamonds.
Before your sons got into diamonds, did they ever make you jewelry?
They made me a pin out of macramé. They were in preschool. And I wore it, because I was so proud, because it was so sweet, with their little handprints on it. But that’s pretty much the only handmade jewelry. They love to make clay pottery items. And so, all throughout my kitchen I’ve got little odd-shaped bowls that make absolutely no sense or sharks that they made that sit throughout the house in odd places. So you do collect some very interesting pieces.
Do you wear the diamond bracelet on special occasions only or daily?
I generally will wear it, probably five days out of seven. Because of the insurance on it, when I take it off, I have to secure it in a safe. I mean, jewelry is to be worn, it’s to be seen. And now, I’m at the point when, if I don’t wear a piece of jewelry for a year (well, for two years), I’ll say that’s when I restart, rethinking: Should I trade it, or should I make it into something else? Because I want my pieces to be useful, and I don’t want anything in my collection that I don’t want to wear every day.
Do you want to pass this piece down to them someday?
Well, I think jewelry — all jewelry — is an investment, especially when it’s diamonds. And so in my will, now I have to update it because obviously this is a very expensive piece. I will update it to know where this piece would go, but they will get it. But I will specify that it is not to go to any young ladies until after they’ve been married to that person for a minimum of 20 years.
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