I’ve been fired from Valentine’s Day duty this year. Last year I failed, miserably. I had absolutely no idea it was such a big holiday at school. I dropped the boys off on 14th February, said goodbye and went home.
When I picked the boys up at the end of the day, they came sprinting out of school screaming that I wouldn’t believe how much stuff they had been given. I wasn’t quite sure what they were referring to until we arrived home and they spread their ‘stuff’ out all over the carpet.
Every single child in the class had given every other child in the class something for Valentine’s Day. Chocolates, sweets, stickers, cards, tattoos, it was endless.
I had absolutely no idea that the boys should have taken something in for all their classmates. I felt ashamed that we were the only people in the class not to have taken in some treats.
Now that I look back, there was the email from the teacher saying that every single child should be included in Valentine’s Day; children weren’t allowed to just give one or two. Then there was that other email stating exactly how many children were in the class. I suppose those should have been big clues that something important was happening.
My husband was appalled. ‘You didn’t give them anything to take in? It’s Valentine’s Day; of course you should have given them something. It’s the big holiday!’ Could you perhaps have told me that beforehand?
So this year, I’ve been fired. My services are not required. Responsibility for this day has been taken out of my hands. My husband has promised that he will organize something for the boys to give to their classmates. The thing is, he thinks that he’ll come up with something really creative and the best thing in the class, but in reality at about 6pm on 13th February, he’s going to remember and make a mad dash to Target and put together something from the dregs left on the shelves.
I bet some super duper crafty mommies have already prepared their gifts. Lovingly cutting, pasting and gluing glitter and hearts. I did linger in Paper Source the other day and think, yes, I could make something! Thank goodness the moment passed by very quickly. My feeling is that all this stuff ends up in the bin. Well, it does in our house anyway. Do I really want to spend several hours creating 28 individual masterpieces, only for them to be thrown away? It’s the same with party bags, I resent them too. I know it will all end up in the bin.
So this year I get all the benefits of these Valentine’s Day gifts, sneaking the odd chocolate or sweet but none of the work.
I just hope our Cupid gets his act together in time.
{ 11 comments }
We need to work on this together. I got some of those clear party favor bags last year. I added some small candies, and tied it off with a ribbon. We got the “traditional” Superhero Valentine’s to go with it. And this was just for preschool. I mean really…you know you live in Newport Beach. Must compete!!
Thank goodness you were fired!! I have to admit that I was never the dotting home room Mom for my kids. All that work! All the brain cells damaged in the process of coming up with massive creativity. UGHH… My mother did an excellent job at this, but that gene skipped a generation in my family. i admire all the moms who have fun with this. Me??? Not so much. Go, Danny, Go!
My DD is only 4 so I really think of it as a way for her to practice her letters on the cards with some glitter glue and puffs
Keeps her busy for about an hour, I love it! I also bought some heart crayon mixes that you can make sooo easy – but I bought them on etsy. She is in preschool though.
Aha, so I get it now. Hallmarks, having found that the commercial aspect has fallen foul of its adult customers who have become blase (cannot do accent, sorry) about the annual event, have now started targeting children by establishing parental rights under the guise of ‘all inclusiveness’. Everyone has to get something.
WTF? What happened to the school of hard knocks? Are we pampering our kids now to this degree?
Maybe I am just on another rant, who knows any more.
LCM x
AArgh, Lorna, this fills me with horror as I wasn’t planning to do anything…..I might just have to pretend I haven’t read your post and am a totally ignorant foreigner. We haven’t had any directive yet from preschool though – unlike with Halloween – so maybe I can get away with it?
That is ridiculous, and completely devalues the meaning of Valentine’s. I remember getting only one Valentine’s card in my whole career – anonymous – but it was really special.
Lorna, I can pretty much guarantee that your husband won’t be out shopping at 6pm on the 13th for stuff for the class. It’ll either be 4pm on the 12th that the kids come home crying because the class celebrated Valentine’s day on Friday, or it’ll be 6pm on the 14th when the kids ask daddy where their stuff is to take to school tomorrow — right about the time that the babysitter is showing up so you two can have your nice (Sunday) night out on Valentine’s Day.
I have embraced Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving, but Valentines leaves me cold. Sorry.
It involves lots of free crap candy for kids. It involves the agony of embarrassment when they get to an age at which they’re too old to be giving out Scooby Doo and Spongebob cards (and what a total waste of money those are), but still have to do something, as everyone else is.
It’s obligatory to order a cookie as big as a dinner plate, with icing as thick as Barbara Cartland’s make-up, from the PTO, and write a gushy message to accompany it, for each child.
Aaargh. Hate it.
And on the subject of love, my youngest has just walked into the room, and told me “I would rather hug you than die”. That’s how gushy and over-stated we are in our household.
haha! That’s too funny. I’m sure when we move to England, it will be my turn to be the ignorant-but-well-intentioned-American, hopefully you will be forgiven as the English version, haha! It’s all way too commercialized anyway
And imagine my daughters dissapointment when we moved back to the UK a couple years ago and she made everyone in her class a heart-shaped valentine for the day. And she got none in return. Tears.
I’m in my fifties; the idea used to be that you made the valentines yourself even if it was just construction paper hearts, or at least signed the little penny ones yourself. Everybody also made a fancy box to hold their valentines in. Nothing elaborate, nothing expensive, no candy, no treats, but yes you absolutely did give everyone in your class a card. Parents were not involved at all, except possibly to help make cookies for the party. And it was primarily a children’s holiday, as was Halloween. It’s only in the last 15 years that the adult romantic aspect has come into play for Valentines or that adults have started wearing costumes for Halloween.
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