So, how many of you went out and bought the big gaudy cards with the hearts and those teeny tiny heart candy with the "be mine" sayings?
Did you fall prey to the Hallmark of all Hallmark Holidays? Did you end up buying those silly little blinking pins that say, "HUG ME?"
Luckily, I was sucked into it-but only slightly.(yeah, right!) Having children, you have to engage their curiosity about numerous holidays. Especially when you have children in school. My eldest, Jack, sat at the kitchen table yesterday preparing his special valentines for his class. Yet, there was a subtle difference from when I WAS A KID, to his own childhood.
- His school asked that we NOT write the names of the students on those teeny rectangular cards that fold and somehow manage to stay closed with a tiny red heart sticker. That we should only have our children sign their names on the cards-that's it.
- When shopping around for the Cards, I noticed a huge difference in Valentines day..As Charlie Brown put it in the Christmas cartoon, "Oh No, even my DOG'S gone commercial!!" Yes, my dear friends, Valentines day was all about the biggest cards, the numerous options of chocolates, the $1 heart shaped notepads, the bags and bags of twixs, snickers, purple heart shaped chocolates with caramel inside...(Yes, at Target, for those that are curious in picking up the 50% off sales now that the holiday is over.)
- When in my son's classroom for the Valentines day party, (remember, I'm the classroom care Coordinator, therefore I have to oversee all the parties should we not have "enough" parental volunteers, which we never seem to have.) Needless to say, I recall looking forward to that Valentines day as a young girl, when we'd each get to stand up and walk around and pass out the cards, sticking them neatly in the small slit that was your own handmade valentines day shoebox. The best part besides the passing out, was sitting there with your valentines, and reading those mini rectangular cards, and getting that pitter patter as you came across the one from "your crush..." the one that had the big heart that said, "BE MINE" Love, Todd.. Not this year. Nope, the teacher asked if we, the coordinators, could put the valentines day cards from all the students in their brown paper sacks that they creatively made. So, to sum up, the children didn't get to pass out their own cards.
- They were told that they were to look through their Valentines when they got home. So, they weren't even able to browse through them in school. Quite obviously there wasn't enough time, with the Valentines day cookie decorating snack time, and the Valentines day Book reading, and the Valentines day Make your parents a card, craft. Oh, and the Valentines day Game which consisted of a heart shaped version of "hot potato." I mean seriously, enough with the holiday hooplah!
- When Jackson opened up his brown sack upon arriving at home, there was only ONE mini rectangular card enclosed that didn't have some type of candy or candies attached to it. The rest had tattoo's, lots of candy oh and a pencil, or two.
Whatever happened to the anticipation of the cards alone? Now it's more about the candy that they're given.
Yup, it's gone commercial! Unfortunately I played a part in that too. I too included a valentines day Power Ranger card with an assortment of candies. So, it's not something we can blame our children-the selfishness, the spoiled, the gimmies gimmies gimmies...No, it's our fault!!
As parents it's our job to teach them, and not provide their class with a bag the size of Halloween candy, with a card that reads To: BLANK From: Jackson. I am guilty of that, and I'm not proud of it either. I went commercial this year, and that's disappointing to me. I vow next year NOT to succumb to the popularity of it all. You're more than welcome to remind me of that too!
Yet, is there that much hype being displayed for the upcoming Presidents day? Granted the children have a day off of school, but besides that...I don't see that holiday going Commercial. Sad if you think about it. The values of our society have drastically declined from when I was a child. It's up to us to change. It's up to us to refrain from falling into the "if they're doing it, so should we," disease.
I'll make the difference next year, and I don't give a rats rear what the other parents think of me. I only wish I would've thought about that before I decided to go commercial.
Welcome To Crustybeef~
I refuse to be a commercial bandwagon. So please remind me for next year! Oh, and one more thing, on one of the green heart shaped candies that Jackson received from a classmate read, "EMAIL ME!!"
ARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!
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