There was always a lot of social anxiety connected to those little mailboxes for me. How I hated Valentine’s Day as a kid! It was such agony to choose a card for each classmate, hoping none would be misinterpreted or made fun of and occasionally that a special one would be noticed and understood. Then the torture of having my box sit there waiting for cards and looking at who did or did not care to send me one. What a horrible, detestable tradition. I never really understood when our homeschool groups wanted to duplicate it. Even when everyone is required to give a card to everyone else, there’s always room for hurt feelings and misunderstandings. As a parent I also hated all those stupid pieces of paper lying about. I’d tell the kids to pick up their valentines, but they didn’t really know what to do with them either. I think they felt badly about throwing away the cards their friends gave them too soon, and I felt I couldn’t do it because they weren’t mine. If they were still floating around the house by the time March came, I was more than happy to assist them to the trash can, though.
Just call me the Valentine’s Day Grinch. I just told my husband, “I know Valentine’s Day is coming up, but you don’t need to do anything, and *please* do not get me candy.” I’m trying to diet and seeing the stuff in the stores is temptation enough. My willpower would completely dissolve if he bought some. We may go out to dinner, though. Everyone’s gotta eat, we can choose reasonable meals and portions, and we’d feel we sufficiently conformed to the expected societal norms. How romantic is that?
Movies are nice, if there are any good ones out. A trip to a favorite spot you hung out when you were courting; a new piece of jewelry? I can keep going if you like. 🙂
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There was always a lot of social anxiety connected to those little mailboxes for me. How I hated Valentine’s Day as a kid! It was such agony to choose a card for each classmate, hoping none would be misinterpreted or made fun of and occasionally that a special one would be noticed and understood. Then the torture of having my box sit there waiting for cards and looking at who did or did not care to send me one. What a horrible, detestable tradition. I never really understood when our homeschool groups wanted to duplicate it. Even when everyone is required to give a card to everyone else, there’s always room for hurt feelings and misunderstandings. As a parent I also hated all those stupid pieces of paper lying about. I’d tell the kids to pick up their valentines, but they didn’t really know what to do with them either. I think they felt badly about throwing away the cards their friends gave them too soon, and I felt I couldn’t do it because they weren’t mine. If they were still floating around the house by the time March came, I was more than happy to assist them to the trash can, though.
Just call me the Valentine’s Day Grinch. I just told my husband, “I know Valentine’s Day is coming up, but you don’t need to do anything, and *please* do not get me candy.” I’m trying to diet and seeing the stuff in the stores is temptation enough. My willpower would completely dissolve if he bought some. We may go out to dinner, though. Everyone’s gotta eat, we can choose reasonable meals and portions, and we’d feel we sufficiently conformed to the expected societal norms. How romantic is that?
Movies are nice, if there are any good ones out. A trip to a favorite spot you hung out when you were courting; a new piece of jewelry? I can keep going if you like. 🙂