Valentine’s Day is here again!
For the past few years I have convinced my daughter to embark on a big craft-making affair, where I cut out construction paper hearts and she colours and decorates them. She is more of an artist than my older kids. When they were younger and I could encourage them to go “handmade”, it had more of a sweat-shop vibe… they were good for one or two, but making 25 was painful. Some kids would just get a worn heart with one hastily scribbled happy face on it.
In Grade 1, she still wants to make one for absolutely everyone she comes in contact with, so we have a lot of hearts (and a lot of glitter and paper scraps found on the floor). We also debate the store-bought Valentine’s. I’m sorry, have you seen these things? Poor excuses for declarations of love and friendship printed on flimsy papers with weak rhymes. You won’t find card stock with cute little trains saying “I choo-choo-choose you”, in fact today’s store-bought Valentine’s cards don’t even come with envelopes!
Before I’m cast in the role of over-achieveing mom with the whole handmade cards thing, please know that my cards are actually made by my child so the quality is just that – handmade. They may lose their sparkle and have jagged edges but they’re made with intense dedication by my little artist, and by the way, she still pronounces it “Valentime’s”. Which is how it should be, am I right?