It was 30 minutes before the girls had to be in school. I sat on the stool by the kitchen counter frantically pulling apart the supposedly perforated Valentine’s cards. The perforation didn’t do much, so I reached out to grab the closest pair of scissors, and those happened to be Nichole’s adaptive ones. Little snip by little snip I got them. Twenty minutes now. The clock was ticking.
I got the cards last night. The simple kind with no candy, or pencils, or erasers. Nothing, just plain little cards. 99 cents. And I got two boxes, because I had to get Valentine’s done for two of my girls.
I probably should have gotten them ready last night as well. But no, I was too tired. I took a shower and went to bed thinking, “It won’t take more than 10 minutes.” Ha!
My oldest is in Second grade and she came home a couple of weeks ago with the list of names of all the kids in her class. For two days she worked on her Valentines. She cut out hearts out of card-stock and folded them in half. She decorated the outside with fancy letters with the “to” and “from” and “Happy Valentine’s Day.” On the inside, she wrote a poem for each one of her classmates. Yes, each kid got their personal poem. They all started with “Roses are red, Violets are blue….” For the kid that likes SpongeBob she wrote, “Roses are red, Violets are blue, I know you like SpongeBob, Did you know I do too?” Then she taped a piece of candy to each one of them. I’ve never been more impressed by a Valentine’s card before. It was all her idea, she knew exactly what she was going to do and she did it.
My other two girls – in Kindergarten and First grade – really don’t care. So the class lists sat on the kitchen counter, or on the craft table, or on their bedroom floor, I don’t know.
So this morning it was a frantic race to find the lists. Thankfully my husband had rescued one of them a while back and knew where it was. The other one…well…the dog ate it! I mean seriously, the dog ate it! My puppy ate the list of names for the Valentines! And what do you do about that?
You write,
To: My friend
From: Nina
And that my friends, is the most impersonal, lame, and boring card any kid could ever get. I really should have just grabbed the candy that has a spot for the “to” and “from.” At least you can forgive anonymity if you get some chocolate, right? So my poor kid is the one with those Valentines.
Oh and I know, kids should write their own Valentines, print their name and their friend’s names. My youngest has Down syndrome, and she can’t write, so I do have to write them myself. My middle daughter could do it, if I had planned this with time, if I had bought her Valentine’s before she was already sleeping last night and before it became a moment of, “OH NO, WE FORGOT ALL ABOUT THE VALENTINES!!!”
This morning on Facebook I saw one of my friends post pictures of her daughter’s Valentine’s. They were seriously amazing. Perfectly assembled little Minion boxes (from the movie, Despicable Me) that said, “You are one in a ‘Minion'” And I am sure there was candy inside each one of them. I had just stuck my lame-o little cards in sandwich bags and put those in the girls’ backpacks.
It’s official, I’m the worst Valentine’s Day mom…ever!
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I have to admit that we did “those” Valentines…the Minon type this year. I used it as part of his OT with writing and cutting. I spaced it out over a few days. It was painful to watch him write each card (literally painful, I’m sure you know that feeling of wanting to help them). I decided next year it will be something that can be typed! Our son goes to a Deaf school and they celebrate EVERYTHING all year long…Deaf children often lag behind in holiday vocabulary as it’s not used often (and ever changing to be PC these days). If it won’t have been such a big deal…I would have been 20 minutes prior to school with kid scissors! You did great!! They went with something! Have a wonderful date with your hubby!
Lisa, I thought about the OT aspect of it, and I almost let it get to me. Next year, we are doing photos!
We totally bought the box of Valentine’s this year, too. Fortunately, our school doesn’t allow candy, so I didn’t worry about being the only one without.
I wish all schools said no candy!
Love it. My son got a valentine today addressed “to you from Nina”. Maybe they lost the list too. 😉
Maybe they really did! 🙂
Ellen, don’t beat yourself up! As a lower elementary teacher I have 25 years of K-2 Valentine’s Day exchanges, and I know they never look at the printing! They dig for all the candy that has fallen off the cards in their box/sack, not ever knowing (or caring) who gave what. The kids are always happy, regardless.
HI Ellen, Been randomly following your blog. This one hit home. I have a 7 year old with Down’s Syndrome and was indeed filling them out my self the night before all the while feeling the ‘guilts’ for not letting Leah write her name herself, Of course this would have taken WAY LONG… Love to meet you sometime… I live a coupe hours away on the other side of the state!!
Chris, Nichole is not even close to writing her name, so I’m not sure she will eve do this when she is 7! But, I got a great idea from another Valentine. Next year, we are taking her picture and I am adding a “Happy Valentine’s Day” text at the top and printing those out.
We began writing “To My Friend” after I volunteered one Valentine’s day at my son’s school. The day was shortened and complete mayhem! The day was broken up into crafts, Valentines for parents, “party” and parade. Before the class’ snack break, the kids were told to pass out their Valentines. Some kids figured out that they had “forgotten” someone and feelings were hurt. A couple of kids were too busy looking and ripping into their Valentines, that they forgot to pass out the ones they were giving to their classmates. The teacher sighed, saying she would take care of it during snack break and while the kids were out, she was rushing to get them slotted in the right mailboxes while the volunteers were prepping for the “party”. After she got through the first batch of Valentines, she looked at the next batch and laughed, “Bless this mom! She wrote “To My Friend!””
Oh that is good to know! Next year we are doing pictures and won’t even bother with friend’s names! 🙂
So love this post because I thought I was the only one with that title this week. I forgot all about the party until a couple hours before school. Thankfully he only goes in the afternoon. Crazy trying to get him to sort of “sign” the valentines and then put something together for snack to share. Took my measly little pathetic snack into the classroom (we can bring in homemade things since it is just a little preschool) and the teacher looked down at what I brought (and I didn’t bring much because there are only 7 kids) and then took me over to what the other moms had brought. There on the counter was this amazing food-art bouquet that I was sure someone had stopped at Edible Arrangements to buy. Melons cut out in the shape of hearts on sticks and all tied up in plastic with a bow just like a professional had done it. The teacher said “O she must have made this LAST NIGHT because SHE WORKS.” and then said “that is amazing…she is showing off.” I walked out with a sign on my head that said “Lamo Mom.” Laughed about it the rest of the day. It really was pretty funny.
Karen, yes! We forgot to make a decorated box for the Valentine’s, so I found a gift bag and that will have to do. 🙂