A Rational Guide to Valentine’s Day

My daughter-in-law Caroline is joining us for Java today! And even though I’ve posted this before, it’s too good not to share it again today. She’s talking about Valentine’s Day – the expectations and the reality. She’s a 20-something with a great perspective that will encourage and challenge you.


guest post by Caroline Rothschild

Today is Valentine’s Day. In the middle school world, it’s the day that roses are delivered to classrooms and kids walk around with giant teddy bears bought from the grocery store. In the adult world, it can easily move from being about chocolate to something far more complex; the day can too often become about feeling loved.

I wrote the post below about 4 years ago, and I find myself publishing it again each year because, somehow, it stays relevant. Regardless of age or stage of life or relationship status, the post stays relevant because it’s really not about Valentine’s Day; it’s about expectations. And, so often, our expectations are set so high that they are bound to let us down.

Valentine’s Day in elementary school rocked. Back then the only downside was creating the Valentine’s box. Every year I tried to make these outlandish boxes that inevitably failed, and then my dad would come to the rescue and do damage control on my box super-late the night before Valentine’s Day.