To all the parents who send cards and gift bags to school for my kids on Valentine’s Day, thank you.
I know the time and effort you put into those cards and, if you send them, gift bags. Pouring over the lists, sitting with your kids making sure they’re spelling the names right, making sure no one was forgotten.
Creating the cards take and the little gift bags (if you do that) takes so much time, money and effort, and my kids always loved them. The act of giving or writing a note from one child to their fellow students is such a gift to each other and although it seems like such a waste of time, it’s not. We’re teaching our kids kindness, writing skills, memory and inclusivity when we’re handing out the little cards that have been carefully (and sometimes painfully) written.
My kids are older now and Valentine’s Day has morphed from excitement to excessive amounts of eye-rolling. I miss the excitement of a grade 2 kid coming home with a box full of Valentine’s Day cards and treats.
My kids won’t be the kids sending gift bags with goodies to school on Valentine’s Day, and I’m sorry to the parents who send gift bags that your generosity won’t be reciprocated. You get it though, you’re a parent too. You know we have to pick and chose how we allocate the tiny amount of hours we get to pull life together for our families. For my kids, sending Valentine’s Day cards with the perforated lines is what we’ve been able to manage this year.
The great thing about kids is that they don’t really notice who sent gift bags and who sent in just a card. These are things parents worry about.
If your kids are like mine they come home and dump the bag of Valentine’s Day cards and treats. They’ll re-read the cards from their friends and sort the pencils and eat the candy not noticing who gave what. Kids are cool like that. Parents are the ones who will sit back and think, “who has time for that?” and “how much did that cost?” and my favourite “why can’t we do things as we did in the olden days?”
These little Valentine’s Day traditions aren’t for us adults, they’re for the kids and we often forget that kids are little for such a short period of time, and special treats like this are fun.
So I’d like to thank all the parents in my kids classes for the cards and for the treats. You’ve were a part of making my kids Valentines Day really fun and there’s nothing more I can think of that really shows the meaning of Valentines Day, to make someone feel special. ♥️