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Strollerderby
School Says Kids Too Young for Valentine’s Day
First it was no flower deliveries in school, now some schools are actually banning Valentine’s Day outright.
But is it because they don’t want the disruption during class time or they don’t want kids’ feelings hurt? No and no.
The administrators at one British school don’t think little kids are mature enough for Valentine’s Day – because they’re not old enough to profess their love for a boyfriend or girlfriend.
And they wonder why single folks hate Valentine’s Day? Because if it’s all about romantic love, then you might as well tell parents to stop buying for their kids, kids to stop buying for their parents and friends to stop the little moments.
Considering a recent survey found four out of every five consumers buying Valentine cards and gifts will be buying for their children, grandchildren, mothers, fathers and siblings this year, that would be a LOT of people.
The Telegraph reported the school’s head teacher laid the blame for being forced to cancel the holiday on parents. “Some children and parents encourage a lot of talk about boyfriends and girlfriends,” Peter Turner told the paper. “We believe that such ideas should wait until children are mature enough emotionally and socially to understand the commitment involved in having or being a boyfriend or girlfriend.”
Having just spent a night helping my daughter count out sixteen Valentine’s from her box of Phineas and Ferb cards and watching her painstakingly spell out her name sixteen times, I call hogwash. She never once brought up a “boyfriend,” but she was plenty excited to have a gift for her nursery school friends. And when I picked her up from school this afternoon, the kids were brimming with details about the party – there wasn’t a broken heart in the place.
If we want to save our kids’ the heart ache of Valentine’s Day in those tough teen years, shouldn’t we be encouraging them to face the 14th as a day to celebrate friendship and family? It’s a day that is going to keep on coming, but they’ll learn soon enough that romantic interests come and go – family doesn’t.
Is there such thing as too young for Valentine’s Day?
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