From your experience with it, does it do what Steve Jobs says it does best, ie surfing the intrawebs? If it does, then truly the function of the device is to act as an interface to the internet on the go at home.

Just imagine this:
1) if you're on the couch and you want to order some item you just saw on the tv, what do you do? Reach for the iPad. Do research on it briefly, buy. (Americans often do that, sometimes my mom does that too)

2) if you are chilling at home, doing nothing and surfing the web in your garden, what do you do? Bring the iPad. Laptops are either bulky (or bulkier) or too small to surf comfortable (like a netbook). My mom does that some times.

3) If you are about to sleep, but still planning your trip to Taiwan or to Europe, what do you do? Lie on the bed, reach out for the iPad. Atm, my mom complains that the laptop gets too hot on her lap, so she just does all of it on the table. Not terribly inconvenient, but you see where the iPad works well for her

4) You are cooking in the kitchen, and have roughly 10 mins to spare. You can't leave the kitchen because you have to watch the fire. What do you do? Reach out for the iPad.

So i think the iPad may not be the best item for me to use, because i pretty much lug around my macbook pro everywhere, but it would be perfect for my mom. She does loads of online banking, doesn't type much, surfs a lot, watches youtube videos once in a while and is not exactly tech savvy enough to avoid dangerous websites that infects her netbook with keyloggers. For 2k+, i would spend my money for her birthday which would probably be the most fitting item for her to connect to the internet at home.