Another Valentine’s Day has ended. I saw something online about it also being Singles Awareness (or Appreciation) Day. I don’t usually like to suggest changes to long standing traditions for holidays, but this is an exception of sorts. Valentine’s Day has long been considered the day of love. Why not just make it that, but expand on it? Love isn’t just about romance. It’s also about friends and family. We all love someone, right? Why not just spread the idea that Valentine’s Day is all about love we have for others, and not just within the context of a couple? We all love friends and family, and hopefully we also love ourselves. Most of us have people we love who are unfortunately just in our memories, too.
I like to get small gifts for my children for Valentine’s Day. My children are my non-romantic ‘valentines’. We send paper valentines every year to certain family members. If we didn’t have such a large family, we’d probably send them to everyone, but I come from a very large family – I’m the oldest of 7-1/2, my dad was the oldest of 8, his dad was the oldest of 13, and my grandmother is one of 8. Of course, add in my mom’s side, too. I decided to have my children just send the valentines to their cousins, their grandparents, their great-grandma, and the few remaining family members of my grandma’s generation.
Children have long been encouraged to give paper valentines to all of their classmates in school. I remember making the Valentine’s Day bag in art class, writing out cards at home for all of my classmates, and then all of us putting the cards in everyone else’s bags.
Those not in relationships likely spend the day with people in their lives. Actually, many in relationships probably spend time on Valentine’s Day with other people in addition to their romantic partner. Whenever possible, I spend the day with my children, for example!
What do you think? Should we re-categorize Valentine’s Day? Valentine’s Day can, and I feel should, be about expressing our love to all the people we love and not just in the context of romance!
