Photograph: Courtesy of Merchant’s House museum

Lower East Side/East Village

If you’re taking your mom to…

Clinton Street Baking Co.

or

Prune

Head over to…

Merchant’s House Museum (29 E 4th St between Bowery and Lafayette St, merchantshouse.com) for a tour of the prosperous Treadwell family’s 19th-century row house. If you’re not full from brunch, a special Mother’s Day Tea in the elegant garden includes finger sandwiches and scones with clotted cream ($40).

The Amato Opera (319 Bowery between E 1st and 2nd Sts, amato.org) for a matinee of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. at 2:30pm. At $35, it’s a bargain (but don’t tell Mom that).

Photograph: Joan Marcus

Midtown West

If you’re taking your mom to…

B. Smith’s

or

Chez Josephine

Head over to…

“Monumental France: The Photographs of Edouard Baldus” at the NYPL’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library (Fifth Ave at 42nd Street, nypl.org). You can’t afford to send your mom to Paris, but Baldus surveyed the City of Lights—as well as medieval churches in Provence, Arles and the Rhône Valley—in the 1850s.

Gypsy at the St. James Theater (246 West 44th St between Broadway and Eighth Ave, gypsybroadway.com) to see the ultimate showbiz mother in action. Just let your mom know she’s no Mama Rose.

Photograph: Courtesy Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

Upper East Side

If you’re taking your mom to…

Sarabeth’s East

or

Café d’Alsace

Head over to…

“Rococo: The Continuing Curve” at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (2 E 91st St at Fifth Ave, cooperhewitt.org), where sumptuous furniture and textiles trace the evolution of the opulent style.

The Gustave Courbet retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Ave at 82nd St, metmuseum.org), which features more than 130 vivid works by the pioneering realist.

Photograph: Courtesy Of NYHS

Upper West Side

If you’re taking your mom to…

Good Enough to Eat

or

Barney Greengrass

Head over to…

The Castle and Its Kingdom Tour in Central Park (meet at Belvedere Castle, midpark at 79th Street, centralparknyc.org). This free one-hour stroll around Belvedere Castle and its environs focuses on the area’s history and natural splendor.

“Allure of the East: Orientalism in New York, 1850–1930” at the New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park West between 76th and 77th Sts, nyhistory.org) for a look at Gotham’s long obsession with the Middle East and North Africa.

Park Slope, Brooklyn

If you’re taking your mom to…

Applewood

or

Dizzy’s

Head over to…

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Washington Ave at Eastern Pkwy, bbg.org), where the lilacs are in bloom, followed by pedal-boating in Prospect Park’s Wollman Rink ($15 per hour; enter at Lincoln Rd and Ocean Ave, prospectpark.org).

Green-Wood Cemetery (enter at 25th St and Fifth Ave, green-wood.com), a trolley tour with historian Jeff Richman and groundskeeper Art Presson through the eye-catching gardens and lawns (12:30–2:30pm, $20), followed by music from the young musicians of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York in the chapel.