Hallmark offers recordable Mother's Day cards

"Hi Mom!"

There will be about 122.5 million telephone calls that start out that way on Mother's Day this year, Sunday, May 11, according to the Pew Research Center.

That makes the busiest day of the year for the phone companies, who have actually seen a 10 percent increase in traffic since 1989 thanks to cell phones and lower long distance charges.

But unless Mom has some kind of recording device attached to her phone - and we're not talking CIA or Homeland Security here - the anticipated uplifting voice of an offspring is gone with the click of the receiver.

Now, the Hallmark greeting card people who brought you the sound cards a couple of years ago have added another line just in time for Mother's Day this weekend.

Those creative writers who find a way to tug at a mother's heartstrings in a few words are no match for the voice of a child, even an adult child.

Thanks to a computer chip and mini-microphone embedded into the card, those who care enough to send the very best can do it in a recorded 10-second message.

Obviously, this isn't the time to rattle on like it was an unlimited billing phone call, but a little rehearsal ahead of time can get the sentiment across in the allotted time.

They say animals and kids never perform in public like they do in private so, fortunately, this doesn't have to be done live in one take.

An insert in the card erases the message each time the card is closed.

The message can be recorded over and over until it's as close as it's going to get to perfect. That's when a paper insert is removed, locking those carefully chosen words onto the memory chip.

The personalized message is followed by one of eight 15-second tunes by artists like Tanya Tucker and Phil Collins, similar to the sound cards that Hallmark introduced a few years ago.

As part of the card's release last month, Hallmark visited five U.S. military bases to allow children of mothers stationed overseas to record a brief "Hi Mom!" in their own words.

There will be 152 million Mother's Day cards that generate $1.6 billion going through the post office this week, according to a Web site called the Happy Worker.

But, unlike the military mail call, the government isn't paying for most of them, so be sure to include extra postage.

There is probably someone back at Hallmark headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., who has tested how many times that 10-second voice will keep making a mother smile, but it is likely longer than a telephone call.