Kids giving other kids valentines gifts

More breeding of commercial hysteria! Should not be a thing for such young children.

The whole ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ thing at 7/8 years old ( year3) drives me mad!
Yesterday I had to pick up the pieces of a young girl from my class, crying, because her ‘boyfriend’ ( in the same class) had ‘dumped’ her.
I am forever saying “you’re only 8 years old you’ve got plenty of time for boyfriends/girlfriends when you are older”, because it’s all the time amongst them. Why does it get encouraged? Because it’s ‘cute’???
You hear year 5 and 6 talking about who they’re ‘dating’…really?
Don’t they get any time to just be children with friends any more… does it have to be a ‘relationship’?

Would you be asking this if your little girl was one to come out with gifts? Just wondering…

Aww, poor Ralph.

I think it's a thing in Canada, too, but I'm not sure.

That’s madness that a parent would knowingly send in a gift for one or two DC. No doubt same parent complaining when their DC misses out on a party invite. If parents must do something (and no idea why, as valentines day shouldn’t be a thing in schools) then they should send something in for everyone. That’s really sad to think of those kids upset they didn’t get anything. Parents need to keep this out of school.

Same for my ten year old today! She wasn’t particularly upset but was talking about her friends who got gifts from boys- cupcakes, chocolates, flowers, teddies. It’s a popularity contest and shouldn’t really be allowed in schools. I also think it’s mainly orchestrated by the parents and is really silly as well as being vaguely creepy.

Yes Doggymummar, we did it in the 2960’s

I'm in the UK but I remember a Simpson's episode about it, where Lisa gave the unpopular boy a card with a train on it saying "I choo choo choose you" so I assumed whole class valentines activities must be a thing in the USA.

DS is in a year group of just over 250 kids. Imagine trying to stop anyone from bringing a card / gift in!

This is the first year one of my children has taken part in Valentine’s Day, he’s now in secondary and has his first ‘girlfriend’. He brought her some chocolates and a card, I would have put my foot down over anything expensive but he really enjoyed picking something out for her and as he struggled socially in primary school, it does make my heart sing a little that he could take part.
My others are still in primary and didn’t receive anything, neither of them even mentioned it so not on their radar at all.
I remember getting a card in my last year of primary (90s) but don’t remember anything before that and I certainly didn’t get any gifts. I’m surprised reception aged children are taking stuff in and at 4 years old they wouldn’t know the meaning but would certainly feel left out.

Unpopular opinion warning!

As parents, we are raising kids to become adults. This constant need to protect our children's feelings, everyone's a winner, everyone should be included. No they don't! Not allowing them to experience any negative emotions and then teaching them how to manage this is creating a soft society of young adults, crippled by mental health issues because they were protected from all these negative feelings as children by parents who wrapped them in bubble wrap. If we don't teach them how to handle this feeling of rejection appropriately they will turn into adults who can't handle rejection.

Life as an adult is tough, and they will face many negative experiences and feelings of being left out. How on earth will they manage this if you've protected them from it their whole lives.

For the love of God, Please, teach your kids to not give a sh*t and to not rely on others for their happiness....and also how to handle rejection.

We're raising the future generation here people! And I'd rather my kids develop the emotional resilience to deal with this rather than fall to pieces every time they experienced something they didn't like.

I got my son a big bunch of roses for when he got off the bus, they don't do valentines at his school and his face was so worth it!

Sensible.

I'm in the US and my DCs all went to school here.

Exchanging non-romantic Valentines was a thing all through elementary school from age 4 on. The idea came as quite a shock to me when I first encountered it - we never did anything like that in my very jolly hockey sticks primary school in Ireland, where any kind of soppiness or sentimentality was actively discouraged. But it wasn't what I initially thought it was.

The way it worked was that each child brought a card for everyone else in the class, with "From your friend "Child Name"" written on it, but no recipient name.

Back when my kids were in school, you could tape a lollipop or other wrapped candy to your cards. The food police have stamped that out in their old school, I hear, and the kids can now only attach pencils or other boring items. Quite a lot of schools now frown on candy and obv there can be issues with tree nuts and peanuts with some items, so maybe that's for the best, all told.

In the week before Valentine's Day, I remember my DCs decorating brown paper lunchbags (a little wider than airplane sick bags) for their classmates to drop their Valentines into.

You can buy little packs of cards for about $2.99 in supermarkets, dollar stores, etc. The packets have different themes - My Little Pony, Disney movie/ characters, Paw Patrol, Winnie the Pooh, and lots more, suitable for all ages. Some kids make little cards.

The rule is that you give a Valentine to everyone or no-one, no picking and choosing recipients. Even if you don't give any cards, you will still get some.

It was all very sweet, well organised, and simply a gesture of friendship.

High school Valentines were more on romantic lines.

It's quite disturbing that the parents of the class the OP described thought romantic or boy/ girl Valentines were an appropriate way to mark the day. What is wrong with people?

I got my DD a card and a chocolate rose and mother/daughter matching keyrings. She also got a valentine's card from her female friend.

Some kids got cards and gifts from the opposite sex but I think at that age it's all just innocent fun. Even outside of V day, my DD comes home talking about who was getting married at play time and who is boyfriend and girlfriend.

I don’t think romantic encouraged gestures are appropriate for 5yr olds and I would be side eyeing any parent who encouraged it.

My twins are year 2 and there’s never been any gift giving at their schools.

When I was growing up it was only in secondary school.

We got an email saying that if our kids were bringing Valentine's to give one to the whole class, so no one was left out.

Hate Valentine's day. It's so commercial. Hubby knows I would appreciate chocolate every day except today. Don't like anyone dictating when you're supposed to show appreciation/love for someone, hiw genuine is that?

This happened at my primary school in the 80s.

My 12yo ds used his own money to get his little friend a gift, him and his friends went in to town last weekend together to get stuff, they all swapped them after school. She also got him a card and sweets. We didn't have any input in it at all. Neither of my girls ever got or gave at school.

DC at school (reception class) made valentine days cards to whoever they wanted. My DS gave his to another little boy that he's friends with, and received one from a boy he's friends with. Our school is either delightfully anti-heteronormativity, or haven't explained what valentine's day is. I actually had completely forgotten until DS's class teacher said happy valentine's to me this morning.

My little boy took love heart shaped lollipops in for all of his classmates.

I can't imagine singling someone out on any occasion.

We don't do valentines as a romantic sort of love, we just do it to show we love and we care and also to help foster friendships.

Do you like after eights?

We had this at school in the 80s and it was an all girls school.

my daughter got chocolates from a girl and sweets from a boy today. She is 10. She likes the boy so goes bright red if you mention his name.

Teach her she is worth more than a commercial holiday and a card and chocolates doesn't define her worth nor means love! We don't do valentines day. Been married 17 years. Kids have never even thought about it at school. It's a lot of nonsense in my book!