How do you interpret this message?

[BillLius]

Someone in the household received a box of flowers with this message attached.

Who sent the flowers or who received them?

Happy birthday, Darling

Mum
xxxxx

Happy birthday, Darling Mum

xxxxx

Happy birthday

Darling Mum
xxxxx

The thing is that that has been automatically generated so you can't tell whether it's from a child to the mother or the mother to the child! How old are the children of the house?

No 1, it would be unusual to not sign your name, so it is from Mum. And only an egotist would call themselves darling mum....

I would say from a child or children, to their mum.

It’s not written very well, but I’d assume mum had sent them .

Same

The person with the birthday received them.

Is that person a mum, or do they have a mum that would send flowers?

Probably easier to just ask them.

I'd say from a child or children to their darling mum.
It could also be number one, but I think it less likely that a mother is sending flowers to her offspring.

I think #1

It has no punctuation, so it could be any of the above. There is no way to say for sure, but I agree that people do usual sign their cards, so I would go with the first option.

First one

I would say they are from Mum.

Me too

But I imagine this isn't the case...

I think they're probably from Mum, to darling daughter.

From child to their Darling Mum because of how it was typed out.

Presumably, you've not all got birthdays on the same day and all still have your mums around so should be fairly easy to work out.

I would assume Mum has received them, given that lack of full stop. i.e. it is to “Darling Mum”. If it was to “Darling” then it would need to be “Happy birthday Darling. Mum xxxx”

Number one.

Mum has sent the flowers and wished to say "Happy Birthday, Darling"

Won’t you know whose birthday it is, and whether someone has either a child living elsewhere to send flowers to their Darling Mum, or a mother living elsewhere to send flowers to her darling child?

It’s been printed off a computer form so the layout & punctuation is presumably due to that. It shouldn’t actually be confusing who the flowers are for in real life though!

If I had no real life clues, I’d say it’s just someone not knowing capitalisation rules, so they’re are from Mum (“Happy birthday, darling.”)

Who were they addressed to?
Do they have a mother? Or could they be an age where they have a secret child?
Were they addressed to a man. Or a woman?
If no addressee - does anyone have a mother?
If no addressee could someone living there have a secret child?

Basically - more information please!

Well, this is certainly a mixed bag of interpretations.

I have a mother.
I am a mother
I have a young adult child.

The flowers are for me. When I read the message I immediately thought of “Mommie Dearest” as I know my mother does infact view herself as a Darling Mother.

But the truth is that this message should read

“Happy birthday, Darling

Mum xxxxx”

And now I’ll get my coat.

Eats shoots and leaves

@BillLius I get the feeling that the majority of respondents missed that this was in Pedants’ Corner and assumed that you were genuinely confused as to the sender.

Yes!!!! I was right!!!!

That would mean the OP was being snarky about her own mum’s lack of punctuation when she’d been kind enough to send flowers- really?

Not at all. It is the responsibility of the flower provider to include a comprehensible message. My mother is a retired English teacher. There is nothing wrong with her SPaG. At least she didn’t order me a cake that said

To Billlius

Happy birthday

And underneath write love from Mum two kisses