Valentine's Day Attitude
What’s the sitch with Valentine’s Day?
The holiday began as a legit religious celebration of Saint Valentine, who, among other saintly things, was imprisoned for performing weddings for those forbidden to marry (hence the theme of the modern celebration.)
Participants in the holiday write their loved-ones cards expressing how they feel, giving them sweets or small gifts, and generally spend time with their significant others. It is a pretty positive event, with more than enough candy and love to go around.
There are, however, some prevailing attitudes regarding the saint's day that are decidedly negative. Especially if you were to ask males independent of their female counterparts. Some might say, “I didn’t care enough about this made-up Hallmark holiday, so now my wife is mad at me.” Or, “I didn’t even know we were in a relationship until she stopped talking to me when we didn’t go out for dinner on Valentine’s Day.” Or, “Her gift to me was a little bit more expensive than my gift to her, so now I’m in the dog house.”
It could be said the different genders (generally) have slightly different attitudes and expectations regarding Valentine’s Day. It could also be said (generally), girls place more value and heavier expectations on the ‘festival,’ while guys want to get it over with and get back to hiding their emotions on the inside.
As a guy, I don’t understand this male viewpoint at all.
The girls are giving us an easy way out!! All we have to do is bathe them in love and chocolate and attention for ONE day, and we are pretty much scot free for the surrounding weeks, even months!
They schedule a specific day where we all agree it is not ‘weak’ to pronounce your love. They let you know in advance so we can plan it out a bit (I know, I know, we never do anyway, but they put it on a calendar at least). And if you do well for those 24 hours, you have that in your pocket for the rest of the spring!
Only a girl’s birthday and a couple’s anniversary are as important of dates, in terms of attention and gift giving. If you do well on these three relationship ‘Super Bowls,’ you are getting the most boyfriend-credits (BFCs) for your attention-hours-spent (AHS).
Sometimes a real world example can be helpful.
Say you are simply a wonderful boyfriend, perhaps named BoyFriend1 (BF1). You shower your loved-one with attention and thoughtful trinkets two to three hours pera day, every day of the year. Let’s approximate that at about 900 AHS per annum. But, since your girlfriend is so used to this standard rate of daily attention, she only gives you a one to one ratio of BFCs per AHS (Leaving BF1 with 900 BFCs.)
Whereas, if you aren’t a very attentive boyfriend (BF2), doing just enough to maintain a strained relationship which makes you both only slightly happier than being single… but then you proceed to kick ass on Valentine’s Day… the percent return on your investment is much greater than the consistent boyfriend!
Perhaps BoyFriend2 only outputs 300 AHS per anum (at a one to one ratio, giving him 300 BFCs, only a third of that of BF1), but then on Valentine’s Day laces up his bootstraps and drops ten AHS in one day… he could get easily get a twenty to one return on his invested AHSs, especially because he has set the bar so low! All of a sudden he may have just earned an extra 200 BFCs in one day. Let’s say he has a repeat performance on her birthday… and again on their anniversary… that brings his total to 900 BFCs!! Equivalent to BF1. Now, admittedly, for this formula to work BF1 would have only gotten his average two or three BFCs on Valentine’s Day, his girlfriend’s birthday, and on their anniversary, sort of unlikely being that he is such an attentive and devoted boyfriend… But the point remains!
Now, I’m just commenting, not advocating for BoyFriend1 or BoyFriend2’s preferred relationship method. My real point is, I don’t understand why some men don’t like Valentine’s Day. The BF2s of the world should be happy to be offered this ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card from their partner, whereas the BF1s should be happy to spend another day devoted to their spouse.
On the other hand, I do understand why folks who are single may be annoyed with Valentine’s Day… no one needs a holiday to remind them they’re alone.
