There was a brilliant post written last night about this, which has seemingly disappeared. Will try to recreate now. Hang on, everyone.
I don’t particularly like Valentine’s Day. It seems like it’s a holiday designed to make you feel bad. Either you feel bad because you don’t have a Valentine, or you do have a Valentine, but then you get all anxious about buying just the right gift to show that you love your Valentine just the right amount. It is a good excuse for chocolate and baked goods, but you know what? I’ve found that I don’t actually need an excuse for chocolate and baked goods. Dave and I might wish each other a Happy Valentine’s Day, and I did once make Dave a nifty card, but that was more because I wanted to experiment with card making. If Dave wants to buy me chocolate, fine, but he should do it because he wants to buy me chocolate and not because the Holiday Gods have declared that he needs to prove his love through gifts.
Apparently this view is not the one they take in Kindergarten. We have now gotten several newsletters home telling us to make sure we send in Valentines for everyone. Now, I can certainly understand that, if you’re going to send in Valentines, you should send one for everyone. But I was kind of hoping to opt out entirely. I thought it could be an all or nothing thing, but it’s become increasingly clear that it’s not. Valentines are mandatory. I’ll be darned if I’m going to go out and buy some stupid little Spongebob Squarepants Valentine Kit. Or spend any money at all on this, actually. There is also to be a sugarfest party on Friday afternoon, and we have been instructed to send our children to school wearing Valentines colors (pink, purple, red, or white). Henry, bless his heart, doesn’t sense any of my outrage and has been hand-crafting a unique Valentine for each classmate. I’m trying to look on the sunny side and view this as a good opportunity to bring up time management skills (though I predict a bit of Valentine-making madness on Thursday night).
Is this how it’s going to be for the next 20 years of my life? No opting out of Valentine’s Day? Will every February now be a lesson from the Curriculum of the Cheap Cardmakers Lobby?
Julie,
Last year, we spent 3 weeks hand-crafting valentines for every child in Alessandro’s class, along with his teachers and all school administrators. It was torture.
This year, we bought Winnie the Pooh cards at Target for $1.99. I asked A. if he wanted to do them by hand again, but he opted for the cheap kit. I have to say, I was relieved. Bad mom!
When he was writing out his cards, I got to thinking about those corny valentines we used to send as kids. Who could forget the Valentine’s Cards with the jokes? (“Why should you never rollerskate on an empty stomach? Because it hurts too much!” — or some such nonsense.
Anyway, I’m with you on not being that into the holiday, but the kids seem to dig it for some reason. Oh, one more thing — a few parents have been talking about how they do some kind of “red dessert” or special dinner every year for V-day with their family. That sounds like a better alternative to me than the big build-up and feeling like I should be squeezing into my wedding night lingerie and composing love poems. Bad wife! LOL.
Finishing up the Valentines last night was a bit tetchy. Henry was kind of shrieking and said, “I’m so mad at you at you!” I pointed out that it wasn’t ME he should be mad at. He did finally finish them all, with me coaching him through. The last few were just the kid’s name on one side of a piece of paper, and “LOVE, HENRY” written on the back. Those kids are getting the total bum Valentines compared with the ones from two weeks ago that are shaped like horses and have the names on the horse legs.
I do have to say that I think he’s pretty happy to have done all the work. I pointed out to him that it was the biggest homework assignment he had, and he managed his time well and got it all done and that I was proud of him.
I’m sure I have other interesting things to day but Eli is screaming at me, which takes up every brain cell I have that would normally be devoted to such fanciful acts as “thinking.”