Carson just started preschool last week. We are total newbies to the whole “preschool thing.” I’m barely remembering to send a change of clothes and to pack a lunch that includes all the food groups (which I *ahem* had to look up).
Since Valentine’s Day is this weekend (you’re welcome, guys, for the reminder!), his class is celebrating today. There was a sign up sheet to bring goodies and we were told to bring valentines. It never occurred to me to go above and beyond this request.
Upon dropping Carson off at school this morning, I realized I was sorely mistaken. Quite possibly, I’ve doomed Carson’s social life with my lackluster crafting skills and “it never occured to me” attitude.
After dropping Carson off at school on Tuesday, Ella and I headed to Tar-zhay to pick out some valentines to give to his classmates. I picked out a box. I came home and wrote Carson’s name in the “From” section on the card and wrote his friends’ names on the “To” section. I used a red pen! So Valentine’s Day, I thought. Then I got REALLY crafty and used the enclosed heart-shaped stickers to close the valentine! Voila! Done!
This morning, since I’d wisely chosen “chips” as my item to share (and got rid of two unopened leftover chips from our superbowl party, genius!!), I carefully chose a grocery sack in which to place the chips and transport them to school. I did choose at Tar-zhay grocery sack over a Wal-mart sack because I wanted to look a little more high class. To be really swanky, I probably should have found a grocery sack from Fresh Market.
So I was feeling good! We had valentines! We had chips! We had a change of clothes! I even remembered to include the $2.50 for the pizza party!
At school, though, my proud feelings quickly turned to that sick feeling you get when you realize your kid is the only one whose valentines SUCK and that your fancy grocery sack chip presentation is CRAP.
Other moms were carrying in boxes of individually wrapped and decorated cards and who knows what else. There were ribbons and cellophane and hearts for goodness sakes. Carson’s valentines were in a sandwich baggie! Mortified! These other mom’s snacks weren’t in grocery sacks, OH NOOOOO!, they were on heart-shaped red and pink platters. *shakes head in shame*
These other mom’s children were also not screaming, “NOOOOO! I don’t want to go to school! NOOOOO! I want to go HOME!” But that is a whole other post in itself.
Don’t do it. Don’t get sucked up into the “it has to be the cutest in the class” hysteria. Run, Forrest! Run! (But grab a cupcake before you run.)
Sissy’s school forbids any outside candy, cookies or treats. FORBIDS!!! And, strangely, I’m thankful for it! (Lazy mom here, thankyouverymuch!)
hahaha! This made me laugh so hard! I took d’s Valentine’s to school in a WM bag this morning. lol
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Who are these women? Stepford wives?
Right there with you. Last year at daycare it never occured to me that people would actually send candy to go with the cards. They were two year olds for goodness sake! Who gives a two year old candy? The people at my daycare (not me though.)
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Too funny. I did the EXACT same thing. Went to Target bought some Winnie the Pooh valentines stuck in some heart stickers and put the names in with red pen. I even brought them in a sandwich bag. Although I am a true slacker Mom as we are not attending the Valentine’s Party and I didn’t sign up to bring anything.
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I’m almost sure it’s a keeping up with the Jones’ thing for the moms and the kids could care less. Don’t worry about it. I felt the same way for a long time and after kid 3 I got over it quick.
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I think you did wonderfully…damn those other show-off, overacheiving mothers. I sent the same type cards for my kids for their kindergarten class …so there!
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Oh lord. This is pretty much my exact plan, which I will complete in the NEXT HOUR. Address Target cards, stick hearts in the envelopes and then–GASP–purchase a tray of veggies from Marsh. Yes. I am THAT mom. The one that buys the healthy food. Personally? I’m disgusted that I have to do Valentines for a 2.5yr old in the first place. He doesn’t even GET IT.
Must Be Motherhood´s lastest post..Six Word Memoir, Valentine’s Day Edition
ugh. UGH.
I plan to try not to get sucked into that one-upmanshp crud!
OK, I hate to do this, but I’m about to go one up on you.
Upon starting to read your post, I almost threw up. Why? I realized that I FORGOT TO BUY MY SON VALENTINES AND SEND THEM IN WITH HIS SNACK TODAY. Oh, yeah. My son? NO valentines, NO preschool snack of m&ms that I was supposed to send. Many excuses (I just got back from vaca, my daughter’s party is tomorrow, His preschool is same as his day care and I confused the dates, He’s been home sick the last couple of days and I spaced it being a preschool day. I forgot, etc.) but none better than I’m a LOSER mom.
I’m officially crying.
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Were they mommies of girls? Because I’m guessing no self-respecting dude is going to pass out Valentines with ribbon and hearts. I think you’re setting a fine tone for school Valentines to come.
We did the store bought route this year. Best. decision. ever. They come with STICKERS that don’t cause extra trips to the dentist.
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I’m with you on the half ass thing. I’m just sayin’.
I don’t know when all the moms jumped on the Martha Stewart on crack wagon but I don’t like it!
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And one more thing (and I’ll quit hogging the comments.) We went to a 3rd birthday party for one of my youngest daughter’s daycare friends last year and the mom had color coordinated EVERYTHING from the balloons to the napkins to the invitations to the handmade banner she’d lovingly made. I told her I’d pay her to do that for me. Seriously.
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I had the same feelings of mommy inadequacy this morning! I told my hubby that throngs of people were carrying in pink cupcakes and big pink cellophane packages and giving handmade valentines to the PRINCIPAL!
I was totally in my minivan muttering “suck up” to mask the mommy guilt. When I got home from dropping Addison off I realized we had forgotten to grab her sandwich baggy full of V-day cards.
Adam had to take them to her on his way to work because I am just not on top of my game apparently.
Then I had a thought…Addison is not going to be in therapy one day whining about how all of the other 2nd graders brought cupcakes to school. Or is she? Ahhhh!
Honey, don’t think too much on it. All those valentines do get tossed in the trash eventually.
And the ones my girls always wanted to keep were the ones with their fave characters or the play on words ones. The ones where moms slaved away that I thought were great were the ones rejected!
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When Jacob was in preschool, I sent in little packets of Nerds as a “special treat” thinking I was all mighty at the Halloween party that year along with my orange paper plates left over from our rehearsal dinner. I was stunned beyond comprehension at the fifteen little fancy hand made doodads that came home. And embarrassed. I spent the rest of the year trying to one up all of them. and never succeeding. At the end of the year Jacob got tons of presents that rivaled Christmas day, but he walked in with a small hand written note and that was that. I gave it up in real school and it does happen in “real” school. I thought a lunch bag colored with pink/red crayons would be wonderful for his valentine but apparently the cool kids have dinosaur and alligator boxes and he cannot take the bag lest he be deemed weird. I’m thinking about extending our Presidents weekend by a day tomorrow.
Or if you saw any cool boxes there today, I’m all ears.
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I did the walk of shame my first preschool holiday – which was Halloween for us. By Valentines Day and Christmas, I had all my individual goody bags for each kid. THen, 3 preschool years later, I stopped giving a shit again, and didn’t care that my kid was the only one not giving more candy in an already “too much candy” day and a bunch of party favors that would be destroyed before the car reached our garage.
KEEP BELIEVING
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My kids are grown and I am so glad to be past that period when Mom’s got all crazy creative at preschool! Don’t worry, they catch on by high school.
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Oh yes. And just wait – this will slowly morph into kids who get cell phones for their 6th birthday and lots of other “crazy.” My daughter had a guy friend who got a Rolex in 6th grade. You can bet yer ass he had handmade valentines and gourmet cupcakes flown in from Sprinkles.
Don’t fall for it. The times when you can spend the time and do it up fancy and have fun – go for it. The times you can’t – sign up to bring the napkins.
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Oh no! Are my lollipop mice going to lose tomorrow after all? Well, Mo made them so stick it in your ear Mama Stepford! I’ll take the fun and an ugly Valentine over obnoxious crinkly cellophane any day.
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SO been here, done that! Wrote about it last year. This year? I’ve made peace with my slacker mom status in the valentine’s departent – kudos to moms who go above and beyond but that can be their talent – mine lie elsewhere and that’s okay
We’ve already had home made placemats with hearts and home made foam valentines personalised with photos brought in by other kids in Miss E’s class – hurray for them.
As for the stuff that Miss E gets tomorrow? Half of it will go in the trash – especially the candy since I’m uber protective of her teeth these days.
It’s all a bit of a waste really.
Yes, you can call me the Valentine’s scrooge. I’m okay with that, too
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Shouldn’t those kids be at a totally separate school anyways?
“The Children Learn Unreasonably High Expectations For The Rest Of Their Lives Academy”
Cause four year olds are ueber-impressed with cellophane – right before they suffocate themselves with it…
P’s is tomorrow and I’m sticking to my Target Doggie Valentine with 3-D stickers included.
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The Momfia strikes again. My son’s first year of pre-school the exact same thing happened to me. Now I know better and I still don’t care – Valentines get sent – nothing else. I buck the system, man.
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You know how I feel about goodie bags at school parties. ACK!
I’d much rather see just the cards than wrapped up bags with plastic crap. Our poor landfills, because as soon as we get home, that goes straight into the trash.
While I did usually make cupcakes (as an excuse to eat my buttercream icing, yum!), my fancy container was a plain tupperware cupcake holder.
Now I have to go and finish these overachiever chocolate dipped treats. But in my defense, that and drinks are all the kids are getting for the class party. NO TREAT BAGS!
I say: Whateva….
To the other moms, not you. I so would have done the same thing. Heck, I broke the biggest rule this week and I didn’t bring goody bags to Mateo’s daycare birthday party thing. I just brought way too expensive cake with no filling between the thing layers and called it a day. And I regret even doing that since my kid looked like he wanted me gone or he wanted to be gone, and he only turned two!
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Honey, I HEAR you. Only I had to do all this baloney for my TWO YEAR OLD.
Blah. Will be staying up and baking/decorating 4 dozen cupcakes tonight. Makes me wanna run, too.
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Oh that sounds exactly like me on my first preschool Valentine’s Day party. I was so embarrassed when I saw what my daughter brought home that all of the other kids had brought! Sigh. By now I’ve learned not to care though because I still can’t bring myself to go to that much effort.
I used to feel great humiliation when I didn’t go all out and do the Holly Homemaker frou-frou stuff.
Then, I looked at things from the kids’ perspectives.
The fancy-schmancy healthy cookies? They ignored ‘em and went straight for the bags of chee-tos and the store-bought oreos.
The gorgeous handmade/stamped/painted valentines? The kids threw ‘em all away. They only ones they remotely cared about were the ones with candy attached.
The plates and napkins and such? They could care less. Dollar Store decorations look just as cool to them.
Don’t knock yourself out, Dear Lady! Forget about the frou-frou and focus on the fun!
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That will totally be me tomorrow. Even worse? I forged my daughter’s signature by closing my eye and using my left hand. Getting her to sign her name 39 times was just not s fight I was willing to have.
AFter MANY years of preschool and day school parties, I have learned: some moms just like to do that stuff. It makes ya feel inadequate at first, until you can snicker and mumble to yourself, “Sucker. I bet she was up all night icing those cupcakes with each kid’s name on their very own. And probably spent ten times what I did. And didn’t have sex.”
So, there. You keep on keepin on. Let the other moms have fancy valentines.
Besides, somebody’s gotta fill the “slacker” position, that’s my motto!
Texan Mama´s lastest post..Groundhogs, Gorgeus People, Google Reader, and Girl Scout Cookies
Ah, don’t believe the hype.
Having said that, I’d feel the SAME WAY. This week at storytime I think I was the only shmuck of a Mom whom did not bring in valentine cards for all.
Morale of the story: I suck, too, friend.
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I made this discovery about Valentines day yesterday. Princess had already signed all her Valentine cards the night before, which I was proud of because they don’t exchange them until tomorrow. Plus she signed her own name – not a judgement or brag. It took forever and sucked up an hour to accomplish but she insisted.
When we brought them in the next day another mom was walking in with her daughter’s Valentines… pink loot bags just like you’d find at a birthday party STUFFED beyond capacity. They had cut out hearts, glued Princess images on the hearts and put that design on top.
Luckily Princess still loves the cards she signed so I don’t have to deal with any whining on her part cause I refuse to cave.
Let’s join together and stop the madness. Anyway, these kids don’t need any more candy or plastic crap. We’ve got enough from all the birthday parties.
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This would so be me, except there is no way I’ll have my shit together enough to even enroll my kid in preschool. She’s doomed, DOOOMED I say!
heather…´s lastest post..Give A Little Bit
I’m with Texan Mama – these women are missing out on fun stuff to make Valentines for kids who will never appreciate them.
At least that’s what I tell myself, 18 months after Ironflower started preschool and I continue to have (brief) flashes of insecurity on holidays.
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Hey, at least you remembered! I’d probably forget, Erin would be mortified and we’d be asked not to return.
I have mental pictures of those other mums staying up until the wee small hours slaving away over a hot v-day card. It’s kind of sad really.
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Yep, that happened to me last year. This year I got wise and bought a huDge bag of Dum-Dum pops. Taped one of those to each of the cheapy Valentines. So I went one step above tacky this year. I figure by the time Eldest’s a senior in high school, I will have nailed the Martha Stewart cult-like V-Day perfection.
Gah.
Trenches of Mommyhood´s lastest post..Just Like Night and Day
Jennifer,
This is my 5th year of Valentine parties and I still bring just the Valentine shut with a heart in a baggie. “Never occured to me” has turned into “Couldn’t care less!” With this attitude, it’s also important to not comment on the presentation of the overcrafters because you are only feeding their egos which is the only reason I can come up with that you would do those things! I laugh evilly inside when their handmade Valentines are torn up and tossed aside by my boys!
Dude, I did EXACTLY what you did, to a ‘tee’. So don’t feel bad, you are not alone. I didn’t stay for said preschool party, though, so I’m just sitting here blissfully unaware of my lackluster efforts. Although, I did check Drew’s bag to make sure there were other cards like ours (and yours) that WERE JUST PLAIN CARDS.
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I HATE that they celebrate holidays at school like that. I remember the first time I became aware that I was the “walmart is good enough” mom.
Why do some parents feel the need to go so overboard? These kids are… well.. kids. They don’t care if it’s a $50 valentine or a piece of paper with a booger on it. LOL
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I have such anxiety about things like this that I sign up to bring paper goods. I’m the QUEEN of plates and napkins.
Oh, and I bought the fruit snack “valentines,” (no HFCS, thankyouverymuch) signed Bub’s name on them and called it a day.
And he’s one and a half. Setting a nice precedent I think.
Left over Super Bowl chips is a true classic! Hahaha!!
My kids get all kinds of fancy schmancy crap at Valentine’s and every other holiday school party and I never even know where any of it came from!
So far, everyone is still speaking to me!
I’m thinking about sending something really random next time…like batteries or something to see if anyone will even notice!
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I hope when the time comes for my oldest to be in pre-school, there is a mommy just like you there. Because I would have been strutting around thinking I had done really well to have cards and snacks and clothes and pizza money all on the same day.
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Now I’m scared…should I not send Miss Peach to preschool? Maybe I should, just for the cupcakes…
Nap Warden´s lastest post..Sick, and Wrong
I forgot Hat Day AND Pajama Day this year. In the same week. I rule.
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Oh you poor thing…My friend just posted on facebook that she was the underboard mom at preschool today, HUGS!
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I call them “AlphaMoms”…..and I’m NOT one of them.
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6 words: Too Much Time On Their Hands
I had a mom in our class today say in front of her daughter: ‘she’d be cuter if she’d worn her dress instead of that’
I wanted to slap her. GEt ovah yourself!!!!
GRRRRRR. I feel your pain, love.
our party is tomorrow and now you got me stressed out. thank you jennifer.
I’m bringing the milk so I feel pretty safe. hard to dress up a half gallon.
DesignHER Momma´s lastest post..Checking off the bucket list in Nashville
So I was smuggly laughing because my kids’ pre-school doesn’t “do” valentines because they know the parents are the ones “doing” all the work. Then I got home only to find a classmate’s mom had MAILED us a Valentine. Noooo!
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