Feb 14 2006
Love Year ‘Round
The card companies are squirming in their collective executive seats. The candy manufacturers and jewelers are counting their blessings that American’s are so easily duped into spending loads of money on their products to do something they should do on a regular basis all year long. The public is sucked into the hype of pretty red and pink hearts, and of course the fearsome snarl that comes from women whom aren’t adequately lavished in love on this day. Children are to spend hours at the kitchen table the night before writing their names in the “From” section of tiny little cards inundated with cartoon characters, sealing them with heart shaped stickers and filling their tiny little envelopes with candy so they can hand them out to all of their friends at school.
To me, it’s just another day in this life with the added bonus of an excuse to eat some delicious See’s candy. Yes, I realize that I am a grown up (since when???) and don’t need an “excuse” to eat my favorite candy, but the unforgiving diet has another idea on that! Last weekend hubby and I bought ourselves 2 lbs of See’s Assorted Chocolates as our V-day gift to each other. That’s about as far as we go. Oh, and maybe some good lovin’ after the kids go to bed, but we really don’t even need a super hyped holiday of love to give us that excuse. All we really need is for 3 children to fall asleep quickly once tucked in.
I am a believer of love year ‘round. There is no need to set aside a single day to shower your loved ones with XOXOX’s, fancy jewelry or elegant cards written with someone elses words. I know it’s a great day for children, especially my children. Being the evil mother that I am, my children don’t get to eat candy on any sort of regular basis, so when holidays like this come along, they go nutso for the candy because they get to eat it all day long.
The whole “love” thing is so forced on Valentine’s Day. Wouldn’t you rather get sweet nothings from your partner for no other reason at all other than they were thinking about you today and decided to show you their tremendous love for you in some spur of the moment way? Men and women feel they “have” to shower their significant others with love and gifts today, so any gifts you may receive didn’t really come from a spontaneous burst of appreciation and love, but from the constant barrage of thought that if you DON’T follow along, you’ll end up sleeping outside with the dog. What kind of reasoning is that for giving your loved one a special card or a bunch of flowers? While I will never turn down a pretty bouquet, I will forever know the only reason I got one on Valentine’s Day is because some shmuck on a commercial TOLD my husband what to buy and when. I’d rather believe that my husband is smart enough to know what kind of flowers I like without being told by some idiot on television.
No matter what your feelings of Valentine’s Day are, I do hope that everyone has a good day and nobody receives a bunch of black roses or anything. Me? I am going to fix my family’s favorite dinner tonight (beef stroganoff), pray the children fall asleep rather quickly come bedtime, and love my husband in the same manner that I do every night.
