Spoil sports

This is probably a post Gretchen should do, but since (a) she's in Wisconsin with Mädchen (where else would you want to be in February?), and (b) she doesn't have much time to blog anyway, I'll give it a shot.

A few weeks ago we got a newsletter from Mädchen's preschool with instructions on what to do if your kid was planning to bring valentines to classmates. Our natural reaction was that of course it would be a waste to do valentines because she and her classmates wouldn't really appreciate it since THEY'RE ONLY TWO YEARS OLD. Seems reasonable, right? Well, you can probably guess where this is going...

Sure enough, I think Mädchen ended up being one of the only (and maybe THE only) kids in her class not to bring valentines for the other kids. And many of them not only gave valentines, but they also gave lollipops and other candy. Fortunately since THEY'RE ONLY TWO YEARS OLD it's not like either Mädchen or her classmates know the difference, but Gretchen felt like she was being some kind of neglectful Mom for not having her bring them. (For what it's worth, we've never celebrated Valentine's Day, even during our lovey-dovey early dating days.) I'd probably feel the same way if I were in her shoes, but frankly I still think the whole thing is sort of absurd--we're in a deep recession, people...let's teach our kids to spend wisely and frugally!

Oh, and just for the record, she LOVED getting the valentines.