Mumsnet Talk

You can have other days too! It is also only commercialised if you let it be. I like it .

For me it's a reminder to take the time to make each other feel special, and try to carry it through the rest of the year.

Just like Christmas - you are reminded of the importance of family and also trying to do something for less fortunate people and you try to carry that'goodwill to all men' feeling throughout the year. Usually falls by the wayside during the January sales, but hey, there's always next year.

Well, YANBU because you are absolutely entitled to feel any way you want about Valentines Day!

But you are definitely being unreasonable if you think your way is the only way to feel about it, or if people, like me, who love it, are somehow wrong - I've been with DP a long time, I tell him (and hopefully show him) every day that I love him but Valentines Day is a lovely, romantic occasion as far as we're concerned and we'll continue to celebrate it regardless of what anyone else may think! you think it's childish - I don't

I have always thought it was all about your secret admirers- not the person you have already signed up to.

So I supposed YANBU as even I cannot think of anyone I fancy now I'm in my 40's.

I agree. Dd is 5 and very excited about valentines day . Yesterday we baked heart shaped cookies and then she made a heart shaped card for her dad.
I don't know why adults would get excited about it. It's just another day.

I don't like Valentine's Day either and it's not something we celebrate.

I will however take advantage of the M&S £20 meal deal. Any excuse for a day off cooking

We will probably give one another a card, but that's it.
It's my birthday today, so I never really do anythiang for VD two days later tbh. We go out and celebrate my birthday on and around my birthday instead.

So big brother "need a day " ffs ! like you need/want a day to be instructed to be romantic? ask any chef re that day , then book a table !

I don't like the tacky aspects of it but that's not the only (or preferable) way of being romantic and in the hecticness of life it's nice to have a day that says stop and do something that shows each other that you love them on top of all the stuff we take for granted.
I make cards and DH has kept every single one from the years we've been together, I hadn't realised but he'd made an album which made me soppy as he's not usually the sentimental type.
We rarely go out on valentines day but we always have a nice meal & get presents that we want rather than tat this year DH is getting a cheese hamper from Pong as he's cheese obsessed!

My DP is very romantic and I like to think I am too so its not pressure on valentines but I love it :-)

Its an excuse just to go all out and be romantic. Its hard to explain but I love it.

I agree, I love my husband every day and treat him when I want too not a prescribed day.
The same with my mum and dad, so I never was very interested in it as a teenager either.
We don't do mothers day, fathers day, or cards and presents at easter or birthdays other than for the children.

I completely agree.
My husband and I don't celebrate it. We used to buy each other overly priced chocolate etc when we were in our teens, but soon realised what a waste of time and money it was.
The only thing we do celebrate is our wedding anniversary, much more intimate and actually something more worthy of celebrating our love for each other - or more to the point, coping with each other for so long haha!

All that aside, I did buy my husband and our DS (5) a (I ♡ you) cookie from morrisons earlier. (50p each) -- that's as far as my money will stretch regarding Valentine's Day!!

True I suppose Kelly. To each their own and all that. I'm also the type that doesn't understand planning a trip to Paris in order to 'get engaged' at the top of the Eiffel Tower or somesuch. To me romantic proposals are also spontaneous ones somewhere unexpected. But we're all different, I suppose.

To me romance is spontaneous eg DH arriving home with a bunch of flowers on a miserable Tues evening when you're about to dish up the shepherd's pie. You answered your own question when you said 'to me' - everyone's different. What's good for you won't be for someone else. Some people will think flowers are a waste of money. Each to their own and all that.

DH and I have a competition every year, to send each other the funniest Valentines card we can get our hands on. It does make us smile so why not? No hearts and flowers and dinners involved.
One year though we bought almost identical cards, based on an in-joke from a few years before. Now THAT was romantic!

I felt very romantic in our beautiful huge suite in Venice, same in New York etc etc. It is what you make it. This year, DH will probably make me a meal, with no flowers in sight and I asked for no card.

With so much going on around us, to have a day devoted to Love is a joy and makes us take that extra little bit of notice.

It doesnt have to be about over priced flowers and restaurants on the day!

Charlie our anniversary of when we met is 12th February. Dh often says he wishes it was 2 days after Valentine's day rather than 2 days before as flowers etc. would be cheaper.

He gave me some nice chocolates this morning.

Lighten up, it's just a bit of fun.

I do hate how much pressure there can be over it though. A card and a box of chocolates will do me

I'm not moaning about them Kobaya. I'm just wondering why adults find it romantic when its so set up and contrived. To me romance is spontaneous eg DH arriving home with a bunch of flowers on a miserable Tues evening when you're about to dish up the shepherd's pie.

Christmas and birthdays aren't the same. They're not meant to be romantic.

YANBU. The anniversary of when DH and I met is 11 Feb, so we prefer to celebrate then rather than 14 Feb. I remember some of my ex-colleagues were aghast one year when I said that my DH (then boyfriend) hadn't bought me anything, even after I had explained that we had gone out for a meal three nights earlier for our anniversary.

Having said that, I have never received an anonymous genuine Valentine's card, and I sometimes wish that DH and I had met slightly earlier so that I could have had one. (We did exchange "happy Valentine's day" emails though ).

Its the same as birthdays, or Christmas, or anything. You only buy gifts for your family then because its the done thing, on a prescribed day, that everyone else does too. How is this any different?

Do it, don't do it, whatever, but its churlish and mean spirited to moan about other people who do it because they want to.

But you could say that about Christmas or Easter or any event atthewells. I don't buy DD Christmas presents just because all the other kids are getting them, I do it because that's an event we as a family celebrate. So couples choosing to mark/celebrate Valentine's is the same surely.

Yanbu. We don't do valentines day. We are romantic and thoughtful all year round. We don't need a day to force us to be romantic.

just doing it because everyone else does,

But why else are they doing it?

Personally it does nothing for me. Dh and I are rushed off our feet with 4 dc and I just can't be bothered with it right now. I don't really get the purpose iyswim?

I love our anniversary though so I suppose that's our equivalent and if we weren't married, so didn't already have a date to celebrate, maybe valentines day would mean more? Pre marriage I guess we did make more effort on valentines day