A Confession

Elijah has his first Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow. You know, the ones with the heart shaped "mailboxes" and cheesy valentines for everyone in the class. The truth is, I've been kind of excited about all of these "rights of passage" for him and had every intention of making homemade valentines until we had the month we just had. In fact, I kind of keep forgetting that Valentine's Day is this weekend. Today Mark and I decided that with the past few weeks we've had, we are perfectly happy celebrating with some take-out and a DVD (truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of the forced romance and unrealistic expectations that this holiday sets up for couples).

Anyway....back to my original point.

So I conceded the fact that I did not have the time, energy or creativity to create 10 little treats for all of Elijah's classmates. While at Target over the weekend, I threw a box of Mickey Mouse valentines in the cart next to the cough drops and the laundry detergent. I was a little bit sad that I was resorting to something premade, but knew there was no shame in it. I was, however, at the very least, going to make sure that Elijah signed his own name to each and every one of those valentines.

Until I started the process and realized that Elijah has yet to master the writing of his name on a 2x2 strip of card stock in between Donald Duck and several pink hearts. He was lucky to fit an "E". I thought about letting that remain his signature until I remembered that there are an Elijah, Ethan, Elliot and Ella in his class. Signing the cards with an "E" wasn't going to cut it. Not to mention the fact that it was taking Elijah
f-o-r-e-v-e-r to write said "E". And I was tired. And he was tired. And Micah was tired. And Mark was working late.

So, ladies and gentlemen. I forged my son's Valentine's Day cards. I admit it. Not only did I buy cheap, premade, cheesy cards, I didn't even allow Elijah the time to sign them himself. I don't feel good about it. I'm having to fight the desire I'm feeling to go buy lots of chocolate to attach to the valentines in an effort to distract from the obviously phony signatures. It would only be to assuage my guilt and that's no way to parent. And clearly, if you want to know how to parent, just ask me. The Mother-of-the-Year.