He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me

Who remembers passing notes to the boy you had a crush on when you were a kid? I believe it went something like this, “do you like me, check yes or no” the note had two little check boxes and was folded into a piece of origami art. Your heart was in your stomach as you nervously handed the note to your BFF who delivered it directly to your crush. Sometimes you got the note back right away and sometimes it took days. Either way it was agony to wait. How could we place our fragile egos into one tiny little question?

When I was growing up it was simple, we purchased our Valentine’s Day cards and wrote a name on each one. We went through the entire day excitedly receiving gestures of like and love from our peers. The popular kids were easy to spot on the bus ramp – loaded down with balloons and too many cards to carry from their admirers.

Valentine’s Day is a bit more sophisticated now. We have custom designed cards courtesy of Etsy and Pinterest accompanied with gift bags for each friend. Not to mention the DIY shoe boxes the kids create to collect them all. I am Amazon Prime mom. I lack the talent and patience for crafting and buy everything we need assembled and ready to go. Imagine my surprise when I had to buy a glue gun to help my oldest finish her Valentine’s Day project at home. The gift bags are overflowing with cards, candy, pencils, stickers, bubbles, slime etc. I would love to meet the person who introduced the whole goody bag concept so I can give them a warm hug. It’s a little extra. However, as much as I despise arts and crafts, I do get sucked in to it all. The holiday was less elaborate in preschool. A few store-bought Paw Patrol cards with a bag of fruit snacks and voila, you were done.

Now in elementary school we must step up our game. When my oldest daughter Ella was in Kindergarten her crush was also born on Valentine’s Day. She begged me to buy him a present but that was a hard no for me. She doesn’t need to be prancing into class with gifts and a declaration for the one she loves at age 5.

Truthfully, I just didn’t want her to get hurt or rejected. Her request took me back to the fifth grade when my friend Heather and I bought the boys we liked tie dyed t-shirts with a football and their names airbrushed on the front. Why on earth did we think this was a this was a good idea? We nervously

showed up to school with Valentine’s Day gifts for dudes who were not even our boyfriends.

They were embarrassed of course, and we were brushed off. A few days later my guy brought me a teddy bear with a little heart. It was clearly a consolation prize purchased by his mother who most likely didn’t want me to end up as a story on ABC’s After School Specials. I held onto that bear all year hoping he liked me, but he didn’t. That bear was false hope.

Later that day Ella came home upset because she was the only girl who did not have a gift for him. Are you serious? This is Kindergarten people. Lord have mercy, I am in for a long ride.

Now my baby is in the third grade and she is much older and wiser. She admits that she is just in it for the candy score. This momma is smarter too. We hit up the dollar store, buy in bulk and recruit her little sister for the assembly line.

Right now, it’s all about the chocolate and candy pop rings. We’ll save love and lavish gestures for her teen years.