All over my Facebook feed and my Pinterest pages are how-tos and tutorials for handmade Valentine’s cards: photocards with kids holding real lollipops, printables with puns, and hand assembled treat bags with personalized tags. They look fantastic. I keep thinking that one day, I’ll make some for my kids to take to their class party. In the meantime, we’re going with the old-fashioned solution: handing out store bought valentines that I let the kids pick out 2 weeks ago.
I’m sorry if that makes me an unimaginative, slacker mom, but I refuse to do the bulk of the work for their class valentines. They’re going to have to scribble the names of their 20 or so classmates on each card themselves and stick each one in its envelope. Just the way I did when I was a kid. It’s a rite of passage.
Speaking of store bought valentines, have you seen how fancy they’ve gotten?
Just a stroll through the pink and red Valentine’s aisle at Target is overwhelming. There’s boxes of licensed characters with punny sayings. It’s hard to buy a box of just cards. Now they come with candy, tattoos, pencils, glow sticks, stickers, rubber brand bracelets and who knows what else. I lost track. The kids were overwhelmed by all the choices available. I don’t blame them.
Part of the fun is carefully studying all of the options on the shelf before making the big decision. They could pick whatever cards they wanted with one caveat: no candy. I could at least give the other parents a reprieve. Sophia received so much candy last year that I ended up throwing it out to make room for the Easter candy. (Ssshhh, don’t tell the kids.)
I’m not knocking my creative parents out there who make cute, handmade cards. I just can’t get my act together to do it. Kudos to those who do!
At least this year we bought our valentines early. Last year I totally forgot and went to Target the day before Valentine’s Day. The red aisle was massacred. Most of the cards remaining were One Direction cards and non-licensed characters. I had no idea which ones she would like so I ended up buying three different boxes.
Do your kids hand out store bought cards or handmade cards?
I'm with you on this one! I'm saving the little bit of creative energy I have for the kiddo's cards instead of their classmates.
My son’s Montessori preschool does a Valentine’s cookie exchange every year. Two years ago I fretted over making handmade cookies for my 16 month old to take to exchange with the other babies. We were new to the school and I didn’t want to be the one to bring the dreaded store bought cookies for the parents to eat. Last year my son had his tonsils and adenoids removed the day before Valentine’s Day so I dodged the cookie exchanging. It’s probably sad that I am bummed to not have an excuse this year so back to the bake or buy debate. Not to mention I can’t hide them from him this year so we will be battling with him wanting to eat every cookie for dessert next Friday. Ugh!
Uh, my kid will probably be handing out a valentine that we buy from the store as well. She's 13 and the pressure of being bigger, better, faster is way too much for me to bear.