Will You Be My Valentine?
A story about learning to love the holiday
Let me tell you about today’s Amazon delivery:
We bought 24 valentines day cards for her to send to school to all her friends on Feb 14. Because everybody gets a prize these days and no child gets left behind, the teacher sent us a list of all the kiddos. She’s got enough to worry about other than if Carson got a card this year from the child.
BW tells me I am in charge of this . Being who I am I bought the cheapest bunch I could find because …these will be landfill by the 15th.
Of course, in 2026 you don’t just send cards . Oh no, it’s become freaking Christmas all over again because now all these card sets come with toys.
TOYS, people.
This year, all her friends are getting a valentines card and a little toy.
Because I found the cheapest card set I could find, her friends are getting a little squishy toy and card. These are actually cute and small and easily disposed of later when nobody is looking.
In exchange, she is coming home with 21 gifts on the 14th. These are 21 gifts we have no use for or do not need. We don’t need more squishy toys or stress popper things or rubber balls or tiny bubble wands. We don’t need any of it.
Why? BECAUSE WE ALREADY HAVE ALL OF IT. This isn’t a holiday for gift giving when you’re seven - or at least shouldn’t be. You should get a cupcake at lunch or something and it would probably be more memorable than what whatever crap she totes home and I will eventually end up tossing.
Valentine’s day is really just a money exchange: I’ll buy your kid some crap from Amazon if you buy my kid some crap too. All organized by the school board.
But then I got to thinking…maybe this isn’t so bad after all and I’m just being a cranky old guy.1
Tonight when she saw these she lit up like a sunny day and wanted to assemble them right away. Before watching YouTube Kids, or devices…she wanted to sort through all 24 squishy toys and decide who gets what. When you’re her age, choosing whom gets what card and toy is a science. Each toy was picked specifically for the child - as was the card.
This was a custom job here with a personalized touch for each one. We could start a business.
Unlike some other cards we will get this year - she wrote the names on the card. I was not going to do this for her. This is essentially school homework where you get to practice writing your name 24 times in a row.
Turns out cranky old dad had a blast with her at the table this evening getting the valentines ready and watching her pick and chose just the right card for the right person. She corrected me on the pronunciation of all the names because she’s from Western New York she pronounces things a little different than her Canadian Dad does.
She sung and wrote and had a great time learning to spell some of the more complicated names and was just thrilled to bits about the whole thing. This entire exercise was right up her alley.
She Loved It.
So maybe, just maybe this card giving thing is not so bad after all and the lesson to be learned was by me.
She went to school today, but I learned the lesson.
Until next time,
TH and Co.
I AM old and cranky, nothing new here.