Coming Down Off the Sugar High

I am glad I have a day to recover. 

What are parents thinking?  Valentine’s Day.  I was witness to students receiving flowers, huge stuffed animals, balloons, and mountains of sugar during the day at school.  I even had a family member walk into my classroom to personally deliver flowers and candy to a student. 

This Valentine’s Day, I saw a veritable Molotov Cocktail of corn syrup, laced with fun dip and a fruit roll-up stuffed in the top of the cola bottle.  By the end of the day, there was one group of kids with their heads spinning in circles and chattering at a rate of a Lear jet.  The others were passed out on the floor from the sugar crash, waiting to be scooped up by parents.

What happened to the parties of yesteryear?  The cute card with the goofy saying on it.

Trying to secretly drop it into a decorated cereal box.  The anticipation of who sent you a card, maybe with a secret message of how they really feel about you!  They might REALLY want to BEE my Valentine!

I want to go back in time.  Keep it simple. A couple of games, maybe one special heart cookie…

This year, I received cards with the To: left blank and only the kids name on it - OR – just a piece of candy, tossed on my desk as if the kid was on a parade route through the school. “Throw some to me! Throw some to me!”  The kids don’t write names on Valentines anymore.  Can’t they find time in their hectic schedule of video games and soccer practice to write a name on a card?  Is there no thought of who you are giving a gift, a thought, an inspiration to?

My final vision of the day?  A boy with a skip in his record, squatting on a chair, head twitching side to side to side, uttering…….,”fart, fart, fart, fart, fart….”  His classroom teachers response?  “Debit, debit, debit, debit, debit.” 

I may take a personal holiday on the next “holiday.”