I know that many people don't like Valentines Day. It can be a difficult day if you are single or you have lost someone you love. Other people see it as a commercial gimmick and aren't interested at all. I can totally understand all of that. We don't celebrate Valentines Day in a huge way, we just give each other a card and we usually cook a nice meal and celebrate with an evening in together, eating dinner on our own at the table and then snuggling up to watch a movie. What is important to me is that we spend a little bit of time to tell each other how much we love each other, and how important we are to each other.
Valentines Day had me thinking this year. I saw a lot of different posts on Facebook this morning. Some people saying how they were single and hated it, others showing pictures of their flowers, cards, gifts and others just saying how much they loved their other half or their children. For me, I think Valentines Day is a lovely day. It is a reminder to tell each other that we love each other. True, we shouldn't need a reminder, but our lives are so busy that these things can go presumed but unsaid.
I was talking to my children about Valentines Day this morning. I'm always telling them that the most important thing to be in life is to be kind. I think it's great when they do well in school or they excel in their hobbies but the one thing I want them to grow up to be is kind. I want them to make that their legacy. Before they went into school this morning the girls had a little fight. This is a daily thing really and Bean said something unkind to Little Miss J who then started to cry. I explained to Bean that today, so far her grand achievement was making someone cry. I asked her whether she wanted that to be her legacy. When she looked back on the day did she want to remember that she made someone cry, or would she rather have made someone happy? Of course she said she would have rather made someone happy.
So I sent them into school with the challenge of making someone else happy. I asked them to come out and tell me what they did to make someone else smile today. I asked them to spread the love around this Valentines Day. I'll be doing the same. When I go to bed tonight I want to go to sleep knowing that we made a little difference to someone's life. Nothing big, just sharing a little bit of joy. We could cheer someone up by saying hello, we could smile at a stranger, they could play with someone when they were asked. I could say a genuine thank you to their teachers today for looking after them. I could chat to the checkout person in the supermarket and ask about their day. I could text someone I haven't spoken to for a while. I could give my children a huge hug and tell them exactly what they mean to me. I could make my husband a coffee before he goes to work in the morning.
There are so many little ways that we can spread the love. And I want to do these things today, on Valentines Day and every day.
Be kind always.
Colette B says
We celebrate Valentines Day every year - sometimes with just a card, other times with presents or a meal out. It depends on what money we've got really but it never goes unmarked.
Sherry Cook says
Valentines Day is a funny one for me. I'm not one for commercialism and I hate that the shops dictate to us what we should be doing and when, but actually I messaged my best friends to say how grateful I am for them in my life, and also I cooked a meal for the hubster. Hope you had a great day #TheOrdinaryMoments
Donna says
This is such a lovely post - and I'm going to challenge the children to make someone happy. We don't celebrate Valentines day but I have taught the children it's a day to tell people they love them x
Jenny @ Let's Talk Mommy says
What a lovely post darling. We don't do Vday here iether but I try to do happy challenges with my kids throughtout the year they loved it. We even did it once for Advent calendar wrote out happy things to do for others. I love this babes #ordinarymoments
Katie@mummydaddyme says
This is such a lovely post, I think it is such a nice idea to encourage your children to make someone happy. So sweet.
Little Ladies Big World says
We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day but like you acknowledge it and move on. I always talk to the children about this kind of thing and it is for me the most important thing I can teach them, and model it too. Kindness rocks!
thelittlestdarlingsblog says
We're not overly about valentines day here! I love the idea of the challenge though!