I like Valentine’s Day. I do. It just comes on the heels of my daughter’s birthday, and after going all-out to celebrate that, Valentine’s Day tends to be an afterthought for me.
This year, I have two Valentine’s Day pet-peeves:
1. My daughter’s teacher came up with this lovely idea to have kids draw a Valentine’s Buddy, and they would each bring lunch for their buddy. In essence, I still have to make a lunch, but I send it for some other kid, and Lord knows what kind of food that other mother will be packing! I ate lunch with my daughter last week at her school, and every time I do, I look in awe at what other parents are packing for their children. The winner this past time was the Mom who packed one white breadstick and one brownie for her child’s lunch. Really?! Nothing with viable nutrition! The teacher spent the lunch trying to gather food the other kids weren’t eating to give to him. So yeah, I have high standards with the food I give my kids, and this whole switching lunch thing isn’t my favorite Kindergarten activity.
2. Goodie bags. The Mothers at my son’s daycare send goodie bags home for every random holiday. He got a goodie bag yesterday from a 1 year old, filled with plastic junk and candy. I’m not a believer in goodie bags even at birthday parties — because, truly, who has ever received a goodie bag in which the contents weren’t pitched within a week?! Do I look like a slacker Mom for not giving goodie bags to the other kids at daycare? Probably. I don’t really care.
Seeing posts on Facebook today of what other Moms have done to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their kids truly made me feel like a slacker. They baked muffins, decorated the table, bought cards… I bought one chocolate rose for my daughter, and sprinkled a few candy hearts on the table. Thankfully, the kids are young enough not to know any different.
So that is my rant for the day. We still have cupcakes coming out of our ears at home from my daughter’s birthday, so I’ll be avoiding all of the Valentine’s treats like the plague.
