Is this a thing for valentines now???

[DailyMailHater]

Now I will start this by saying when we were dating / engaged my husband and I did do gifts / cards for Valentine’s Day but since we have been married we don’t and our wedding anniversary is the day we tend to mark.

Well this morning, my social media is full of pictures from people I know and the valentines presents they have bought for their children, the kids seemed to be getting multiple gifts…chocs, flowers, pjs, clothes, toys, sweets…One had all the gifts for her child on the sofa like it was a birthday, with a caption “can’t wait for (child’s name) to see this in the morning so they know how much I love them”
it never even occurred to me to purchase valentines items for my children I didn’t realise this was a thing if it had been one person I wouldn’t of thought much of it but seems to be the majority around here….I think it is madness.

I don't get the need to involve kids??? But dp has bought me roses and a card. They are gracing the table he's working at

I am American born tbf. But I also grew up in Ireland in the 80s/90s - we did not "catch Halloween from the yanks" god damn it! It was very much A Thing in Ireland 30 odd years ago. This comes up all the time on here. It's an ancient festival which has always been big in Scotland and Ireland

I haven't noticed it's a thing here (not in UK). But driving around today I saw a lot of cars stopped on street corners where flower sellers sit. This was late afternoon so perhaps some panic buys happening 😂

I did however buy my 23 year old ds a Cadbury chocolate. His girlfriend has covid so he can't see her. So it was just to cheer him up really. My dd didn't get one as she is out with her bf, so she didn't qualify for one from mum today.

And...... I know he will share it with me. 😋

It's not something we do. In fact DH and I don't do Valentine's at all. It wouldn't occur to me to include the kids if we did either.

@SarahJessicaPorker true. unfortunately this will fall on deaf ears and it’s more fun to blame everything deemed tacky and naff on Americans instead of daring to think the British are capable of acting in the same way of their own volition

@T00Ts

Oh live and let live. Don’t waste your energies feeling pissed off about someone doing something with their kids that is ultimately going to cause no harm at all.

I can’t understand the threads trying to whip up hatred towards a few people who enjoy doing harmless things like this.

It's not harmless if children think their parents' is measured in how much stuff they're given.

At one school I taught at, someone organised different coloured ribbons that you bought to give to other people. The different colours symbolised friendship, or love, or various other stuff I can’t remember now. You would secretly give them to the object of your affections and the money went to charity.

Imagine how people felt on Valentine’s Day, if you were the one with one, or no ribbon, whilst others around you had a handful.

Admittedly regional but here in Norfolk (and parts of north Suffolk) valentines presents for children are very much a thing. I’ve grown up with it and my own grandmother used to talk about Jack Valentine visiting her as a child too.
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/jack-valentine-tradition-norfolk-8631944

[quote Imnoteatingthat]Admittedly regional but here in Norfolk (and parts of north Suffolk) valentines presents for children are very much a thing. I’ve grown up with it and my own grandmother used to talk about Jack Valentine visiting her as a child too.
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/jack-valentine-tradition-norfolk-8631944[/quote]
Norfolk? Say no more 😉 😆

It's madness. Dh and I will be having our usual Valentine's day takeaway and film. Joined by our 2 teenagers as if we wait until they go to bed we'll be eating at midnight. Our 8 year-old and his "girlfriend" exchanged small chocolate hearts.

People must be bored to death with life to be spending money on all this utter trash.

My DC made cards at school to give to us so I bought them a card and a chocolate lollipop. No pictures on social media but I never put pics up of birthday or Christmas gifts either.

Nota thing I've heard of, a little chocolate is ok but why piles of presents? We made some brownies and I cut some hearts out of strawberries to go with them for the kids, but that's it

One of the mums at the school has just been complaining that her husband has made a rod for his own back because he outdid himself buying their daughter a Pandora ring last year and now he has to do it every year. Bloody hell.

Aw some of yous are misery guts! Each to their own I think, DD2 got a chocolate lolly and I got a lovely bouquet from DH, it’s nice to mark the day and momentarily brighten up these bleak winter months! When DD is older I’ll probably do more, bit of bunting, her own little flowers and some heart shaped breakfast..I enjoy an occasion, shoot me oh and I don’t do Facebook so it’s purely to see her little face!

I've definitely noticed it a lot today. I think it's just another thing that can people can post on social media to show their lives off.
We got a couple of cards from dds nursery, which I thought was cute but I wouldn't personally buy her anything. Valentines is a commercial holiday used for companies to make money, there's nothing sentimental about it for me.

Don't see the harm in a card snd a love heart Lolly or similar but when it becomes like a birthday with lots of presents snd fuss it takes it too far.

@pleasejustdropit I'll be the token Norfolk person. Jack Valentine has been a Norfolk tradition for almost longer than America has been settled by Europeans. Very normal to 'ding dong dash' your children with some small gifts for valentines. Less so to post it all over social media though.

@Pleasejustdropit

I really hope this doesn’t turn into the same America bashing BS like the same style thread that was going around a couple weeks ago. It descended into xenophobic/racist chaos. The long and short of it was:

• live and let live
• it’s not a recent development and it’s not just Americans

-someone from Norfolk will try to remind everyone of the Valentine’s traditions there and will be IGNORED as more posters pile on about Instagram oneupmanship or being influenced by American Tv programs/Netflix

• there will be a pile on about environmental damage and consumerism and how that’s all America’s fault
• people will say it’s gross because it’s a holiday that they think is about romantic love, not live in general, putting their own emphasis on no matter the fact that’s not how small children will see it.

I'm with you.
That last thread was disappointing and really awful.

I'm 46 and my mum has always got me a tiny little something for Valentine's Day.

I don't always for DD...she's 17.

Last year she'd been a bit down and we were I lockdown so I made us a nice 'Galentines' dinner.

She asked me to pick up some chocolate she likes for her today so I bunged it in a gift bag and added a book she wanted that was a fiver.

Tends to be spur of the moment and stuff that would happen anyway though iykwim?

When DC was very small I started buying one of those little £1 nets filled with chocolate hearts. I used to leave 3 or 4 in places for him to find on valentines morning. A couple on the stairs, one on his chair etc. It made him so ridiculously thrilled and happy to discover them.

He’s now 18 and I still leave a trail of little chocolate hearts down the stairs for him to find.

@HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime. You’re the second so far! In good company. The social media element is a more recent development and will always be a certain type of person and I don’t think that’s related to what nationality they are.

I bought my children a card each and we had heart shaped toast for breakfast. A boy in dd6 class bought in a red rose for all the girls. Bit ott but my dd thought it was sweet

@Marblessolveeverything

My cat got her human siblings a card and chocolate... she is so passive aggressive of how she would raise them better than their human mother.

We used to get Valentine's chocolate from my grandmother's cat and I'm 50

TBF, she would come for tea every week and brought homemade treats, exotic fruit, chocolate or sweets and comics for all of us so it was more a case of we got heart shaped chocolate the week that Valentine's Day fell.

We spent a few years living in the US when the DC were in elementary school. For valentines, all the children would decorate a 'valentines box' (typically a shoe box). The children would then put their box on their desk and then go around the classroom putting gifts in everyone else's box (everyone's - there was no playing at favourites or leaving anyone out). Typically a little packet of sweets, a pencil, sticker sheet etc. Some people really went to town with whole goodie bags.

It was fun. Yes a bit wasteful I suppose, but so fun. I loved that about our time there - they were always celebrating something - groundhog day, 100 days of school, St Patricks day, all the national holidays. So many lovely traditions and rituals. Our DC go to nice schools now they are back in the UK but it all seems a bit serious in comparison.