A message to moms on Valentine’s Day

Don’t beat yourself up because you didn’t make homemade valentines with your kids.  It is perfectly acceptable to buy a box of valentines at the store. Don’t let the photos of other kids’ homemade valentines that have been plastered all over Facebook make you feel like shit.  You took the time to buy cards for your kids and maybe even helped them write their names and their classmates’ names on each of them and assemble them.  You rock!

If you did make your own valentines, that’s awesome, too.  You should show them off!  You made the time to find a design you liked, to buy crafting supplies, and to sit down with your kids to create their valentines. I know that you and your kids had a great time crafting together.  You rock!

Maybe you usually make your own valentines but this year just didn’t have time.  Or maybe things in your life changed that made homemade valentines impossible this year.  Or maybe last year’s valentine-making made you so crazy that you vowed never to do it again.  You still rock!

Handmade versus store-bought valentines shouldn’t be yet another opportunity to engage in the Mommy Wars.  Whether you work or stay at home with your kids, you made the effort–whether that was driving to Michael’s or to Target.  Your kids don’t care either way.  Seriously.  They are just happy to have valentines.

Besides, all of those valentines—whether inspired by Pinterest or printed at a factory—will just end up in the recycle bin tomorrow anyway.

So enjoy Valentine’s Day knowing that you are a kick-ass mom no matter what.

Snow madness

Remember that episode of Ren and Stimpy where they are suffering from Space Madness? Well, I’m dealing with Snow Madness.  We’ve had snow on the ground here for what seems like an eternity, and I’m really tired of looking at it.  Sometimes I imagine that God has taken a gigantic fire extinguisher and sprayed the whole town.  Sometimes I imagine that episode of The Brady Bunch when Bobby puts a shitload of laundry detergent into the washing machine and frothy, white suds spilled out all over the laundry room.  Sometimes I imagine that last scene from Ghostbusters when the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was blown to bits and marshmallow cream rains down on everything.

Yeah, I’m pretty desperate to put a spin on all of this.

Yesterday I told another mom at school pick-up that I would be really glad when all of the snow melted.  She looked at me like I was crazy (admittedly, I get that a lot) and told me that she thought it was beautiful and that she’d like it to stick around for a while.  Clearly, she’s succumbed to some variation of Snow Madness, too.

We’re looking at the possibility of up to five inches of snow tomorrow night.  It looks like Snow Madness may be a chronic condition.