Valentine's Day is always a stressful time for people. Expectations of the perfect romantic day never match the reality of the day. In this episode, we talk about our successes and failures of Valentine's Days past. It is a "funny look" at a difficult time of the year for many men and women throughout the world.

History of Valentine's Day

• Based on St. Valentine
• Second card-sending holiday right behind Christmas
• Started as notes passed from person to person expressing real feelings
• The chocolate industry got involved
• The card industry got involved
• Stats on Valentine's Day
  • 6 million couples get engaged on Valentine's Day 
  • $18.2 billion will be spent this year for Valentine's Day
  • 54% of persons will celebrate Valentine's Day this year
  • 190 million cards
  • 250 million roses
• Most wanted gifts for women (Big loving gestures, some love it,  and some hate it)
  • Card
  • Flowers
  • Chocolate
  • Jewelry
• Most wanted for men 
  • Sex
  • Chocolate

Expectations and Reality

• Inequality in the holiday
• More pressure on men than women for this holiday
  • Women expect men to do something romantic for Valentine's Day
  • So why (80% of cards are bought by women)?
  • Mostly for kids and grandkids
• Our first Valentine's Day disaster
• Our second Valentine's Day disaster
• Setting expectations: Paige tells Darren exactly what she expects for the holiday (but then apparently doesn't mean it)
• Communicate your needs as long as they are not ridiculous

Ideas for Valentine's Day

• For men to women 
  • Put some thought into your gift
  • Keep it simple. Do something different on that day. Something outside of the ordinary
  • Darren does not get Paige flowers on Valentine's Day. He does it throughout the year.
  • A card with a handwritten note might be just what she needs
• For women to men
  • I want to just get through this holiday without making her too disappointed
• We have changed the holiday to be a fun family dinner auction
  • Thanks, Survivor
  • It takes the pressure off of having something extremely romantic and instead is something fun with the kids
  • This doesn't mean we don't do something romantic around that time

Links

• https://www.proflowers.com/blog/the-history-of-valentines-day
• https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/features/2020/02/08/valentines-day-2020-team-weekend-ponder-what-men-and-women-really-want/