Valentine's Day Can Suck It

I’m not sure why I’m so jaded when it comes to Valentine’s Day, but it’s right up there after Halloween as my least favourite holiday of the year. As someone who lives in the social media realm, the content passing my way the last month has been a steady barrage of pink and red and sexy Valentine’s tips, and on and on and on. As a content creator, I get it. You gotta give the people what they want. Heck, I even share and pass on Valentine’s Day ideas to my followers. Not everyone is an old curmudgeon like me.

On a personal level, though? Excuse me for a second while I retch.

I’m your typical girly girl for the most part. I love flowers. I love romance, lingerie, and hot sex, too—although, I’ll take chips over chocolate any day. I also like diamonds, particularly those thrown in an eternity band (just throwing it out there in case my husband decides to read my blog for like the first time ever). I also like hot words whispered in my ear like, “I’m going to finish drywalling the basement,” or “I took all the recycling out.” Super hot.

However, I do not like that it has to happen February 14th. If my husband wants to canoodle on the 13th, the 15th, or any other day in February, I’m his girl. But the 14th feels like it’s forced. Like I “have” to tell him I love him and he “has” to display his affection for me. Where is the sincerity in that?

As a young girl, Valentine’s Day always came with hurt feelings. Inevitably, the boy I liked didn’t give me a Valentine, the boy I couldn’t stand, did. This led to all kinds of awkwardness. First, I would be polite to the boy who gave me a Valentine, which led to him misreading the signs, which would lead to me eventually having to tell him I didn’t like him. Then I would have to sit and watch as the guy I pined for fell all over a girl who didn’t even really like him. Broken hearts all around.

High school only brought more awkwardness when flowers were delivered to the classroom by a secret admirer. So cute, right? Unless of course, you’re the girl that didn’t have any secret admirers, but you were friends with the girl who had twenty. Yeah, good times, good times.

Even the times when I had a special someone to share the date with, Valentine’s Day has always felt rather anticlimactic to me. There was so much pressure to make it special that it always fell flat.

When my husband runs out and warms the car for me in sub-zero temperatures, that’s sexy. When he cooks dinner, snuggles with our girls, takes time out to talk and cracks jokes, that’s sexy. There’s so much he does all year round that comes straight from his heart that all of the stuff he’s supposed to give me on February 14th pales in comparison.

It will surprise no one at this point then, to learn that my husband and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. For me, I want spontaneity in romance. I want to be surprised by gestures that warm the heart and not drain the pocketbook. So, this Valentine’s Day will be like any other day in our home—we’ll be busy running kids around, working, taking care of our home, and when he goes out to warm the car for me, he’s totally getting lucky.

I wrote about Valentine's Day last year and how my kids have lost their love for it, too.

And if you liked this, check out: "Why I Won't Be Having Sex On Valentine's Day."