Valentine's Day Guilt

Valentine's day started with a load of guilt - my 6 year old son 'reminded' me right on time that we had totally forgotten about the 'little valentine gifts' we have to give his classmates. Oh God! I scolded him for not reminding earlier when we were spending 1.5 days of snow filled 'no-school' days! Both B and I were feeling guilty about sending him to school without the gifts for other kids.

I had to go to work on time today. The thought of going to Walmart and picking tiny valentine cards and goodies and making 21 pouches of goodies 8AM in the morning petrified me. There was no way I could do that. Guilt pangs engulfed me for not having prepared for this moment. Should have shopped on the weekend and packed things into pouches! Whoever thought of this as a task, I totally missed it..now my son will have to suffer!

What if he is the only one to not take goodies in the whole class? I imagined the worst. In front of everyone, what if the teacher calls out 'OK, now is the time for Mr.Nikhil to present his bag of valentine goodies to his classmates'. ..and poor boy stands shy and embarrassed!

Who made these customs I dont know. I still wonder what is the value added to the kids' life because of this. Every kid gets a bunch of such goody bags which they bring home, dump on the table, frantically open this and that , and then totally forget about them. If you are smart, you would not spend too much money and time on those things, coz we all know how shortlived their excitement is. I don't think when I grew up there was any such custom. I feel good for my parents for not having to do such things.

P.S However, I managed to think up an idea of making some snack packs and MIL and B pulled it together. We did not want Nikhil to feel isolated by any chance, so the gifts were delivered to him on time at school by B. Dont want him to miss out on any fun the kids might be getting out of it.

Express it!

I got a Fedex package today morning. I wondered who on earth will send me a package.It was marked with H's name.

H is my colleague from India who came to help us out at the US office during last winter. She is a bright girl and she is proud of everything that made her what she is (the country, the culture, the family and the customs). I see a positive spirit in her that she passes on in her deeds. The efforts that she is willing to take to make people happy brings to my memory that I was like that too.

She had sent handwritten greeting cards and some gifts to three of us who helped her during her stay in US. Needless to say, we were all thrilled and surprised. The fact that she remembered to wish us a Happy New Year this way, made me think that I should do the same for someone else.

I had expressed thoughts along similar lines in my greeting cards post. What you send or buy for someone need not always be a pricey. It could be something simple. In today's busy world, taking the time out and sending a handwritten card can be such a big surprise. Sending a simple gift is hard enough to do in our busy schedules. If you have amazon.com website open, and you finalized what to get for her, you are stuck at a point where you don't have the person's address handy. That happens to me all the time. Then someone calls you for something and you walk off - 'may be some other time'.

Next time, please determine that you will do whatever is needed to express it! I am sure those efforts become fruitful when the receiver smiles upon receipt. I am sure your efforts will be appreciated. Please do not hesitate to express your 'thanks for being my friend' feelings - even if it is in a simple way!

We just did that for someone's birthday (inspired by H) - it is a good feeling at both the ends if you put that bit of effort!