I'm sitting on the couch taking a break from homework while the two youngest are (finally!) napping. Ava is putting a puzzle together in the other room and Jace is draped over my legs running yet another fever.
I am so over sickness.
And it's Valentine's Day. Which...is fine. This year is easier than last year. Last year, every holiday was "the first" since my marriage. The first one spent alone. The first one without a cheesy home made card from my now ex-husband. Lots of holidays were really, really hard last year.
But it's something you get used to, I guess, being on your own, and this year, while I won't lie and say a card or some chocolates or even a extra big hug from someone special wouldn't have been nice, it doesn't really matter. Besides, I won't really be alone...Monday nights are normally John's night to hang out with the kids at the house, but he had other plans for tonight, so I get all four kids all to myself. They've all agreed to be my collective Valentines. Maybe if Jace is feeling better we'll make cookies and watch a movie, or maybe we won't.
The thing is, it's not that important to treat someone specially on Valentine's Day...I'd much rather be treated specially on every other day. And I want my kids to learn that, too...that Valentine's Day is a day with a cool meaning, but going all out and spending money and buying gifts to prove how much you love someone on a day everyone tells us too is kind of unnecessary. I want them to grow up knowing that it's about how the person you choose to be with treats you every single day, not just on special occasions. And I think they learn those things from their family as they grow. I don't love that Valentine's Day, for the kids, seems to be about how much candy they get from their friends, and I don't like that, for me during my marriage, it became about what I was given or the star level of the restaurant we visited as a comparison for how much I was loved. That's not what this, or really any day should be about.
So Valentine's Day? A cool day with an even cooler history and back story, but not the candy extravaganza it's become.
At least, that's what I think. But for those of you going out to fancy restaurants tonight...eat some for me! I love a good dinner!
Park City Utah
2 years ago