I’ve had it with every holiday being about kids, or kids and presents, or decorating for kids. I’m the happy mother of two kids whom I love and I spend a good percentage of my time doing things for them or with them. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But HOLY SHIT! Can one day be about adults or adults who happen to be parents? I’m not a great fan of Valentine’s Day as an enforced day of romance, but even that’s lost to us. Why is every holiday about kids?
Our children already have nature against them when it comes to being self-centered. Experts agree that self-centeredness is a survival and evolutionary mechanism and parents have to suck it up until such time as children come out of the fog sometime in their 20s, or parents themselves sink into a fog. Do we need to make every celebratory day revolve around them too? Here’s a radical thought. How about children take part in a celebration, as other family members do, but not as the central attraction to every activity and gathering? Kids are not maypoles.
Thanksgiving = Cute turkey leg cutouts made of cardboard that somehow mask the grotesqueness of playing with cooked fowl limbs.
Valentine’s Day = Glittery heart-shaped crafts. Nothing good comes of sprinkling glitter everywhere, folks.
Easter = Presents and chocolate. Is nothing sacred? The Easter Bunny brings chocolate. End of story.
Ides of March = Caesar’s betrayal by an ally and all that, “Et tu, Brute?” business doesn’t seem kid-friendly, but I’m sure someone will make it so. A pint-sized, bloody toga, perhaps?
Are we Schrödinger’s cat, existing or not, solely contingent on if we have kids to talk about? If an adult falls in a forest does it really happen unless they’re also a parent and little Billy lost his balloon while mommy fell? I don’t know anymore. I’m losing my way amongst the glitter glue and theme lunches and laser tag birthday parties.
Enough with making everything kid-centric. Leave us something, a scrap to remind us we’re grownups with needs we’d only previously heard about in sex ed class, along with the ability to drink alcohol without having to hide in the shed.
14 Books That Will Get You In The Mood This Valentine’s Day
peady
“Are we Schrödinger’s cat, existing or not, solely contingent on if we have kids to talk about?”
Well put.
We are under a barrage of so many “holidays” all year long it’s practically impossible to go 2 weeks without hearing about what we “should” be preparing for next. I am a holiday loving, celebration overcompensating, sentimental ol’ fool and even *I* am getting fed up.
Hey! You know what? It’s radio day today! Great! It’s on. It’s on every day here anyway. Isn’t that what Valentine’s Day should be like, as well?
Katja Wulfers
Every day is a holiday? Fine. People are bored and need to invent things. But does every holiday have to come with confetti and treats? I’m done.
peady
Well, no. God. How exhausting would *that* be? But I bet if a marketing company could make it so, they would. 😉
People should go outside more. Away from the “stuff” of stuff filled special days.
What I meant was, that we shouldn’t need an announcement that it’s a special day to make a day special. There’s special in the everyday – we just need to see it. We don’t have to buy it, dip it in chocolate, and then bedazzle it.
My daughter took her Valentine’s Day cards to school today. She made them. Wrote a nice little personal note to every single classmate and then a little glitter glue something on the back. Her idea, her work (with a teensy guiding glitter glue hand help from me). Sweet and simple.
And I swear it really is radio day. I heard it on my radio. 😉
mrsbigblupete
Holidays are what you make them. If you choose to make them all about your kids, and it works for you, that’s great. If it doesn’t, then you need to redefine those events, so they do work for you.
Nothing in my house is ALL about the kids. It’s about family. Whether we’re preparing valentine’s cards for classmates, or baking Christmas cookies for the neighbours, the important thing is that we’re doing it together. Where the final product ends up is secondary. I’m also teaching my kids that most, if not all, holidays have been commercialized in the name of profit. They know that we should cherish the ones we love all year long, and let them know it. Once a year, just doesn’t cut it, and it doesn’t take something bought in a store to do it.
And the activities taught in sex-ed?? We partake in those whenever it works for us, not because a date on the calendar dictates it.
kyooty
Valentine’s in Australia and NZ is all adult oriented. Cards at school is a very North American thing. It’s not for the kids. Also it is about a Saint. Yep not a glittery Glued valentine. My child got `1 box, put his name on them and bam! done. My older kids? they don’t do anything. Elementary is where it’s at, but I’m not at all pleased with the tiny erasers, pencils, lollypops, chocolates and rock candy that came home. It’s like a Halloween bag.
Love is Grand! and love is shared in so many ways by so many different people. Keep it simple people. Love all the year through.
On the other side some kids, don’t feel loved every day of the year, some are moved from house to house or not even treated well every day. Valentine’s Day at school might just be the only day they do feel loved by a teacher or a friend. That’s sad. So maybe we just have to suck it up and send a card to every kid in their class. Maybe everyone has to just do it their way, what ever their way is and not complain about how everyone else does a Holiday, event, or Sun, Mon,Tues, Wed,Thurs,Friday, and Saturday.
Katja
Will tomorrow be GPS day?
Katja
Holidays are definitely what we make of them. You’re right, once a year doesn’t cut it at all!
Katja
I’m happy if kids who don’t receive attention any other way can get it from classmates and teachers. And, yes! Those bags are exactly like Halloween bags.
NJ Nowoselski @littleluckeh
Well said. I can relate. Thank god someone is acknowledging this because we all have thought it at one time or more. What about those teen & 20+ yr old’s who think every holiday is still about them only to find out they are now too old!
Suggestion: you need a shopping + only adult day. It helps