Remember when Valentine's Day was all about negligees and jewelry and candlelit dinners with the one you love? Well, not anymore. Apparently like Christmas, Easter, Halloween and, of course, Arbor Day, this holiday is all about the kids. 
The Detroit Free Press recently ran this story announcing that Valentine's Day has been "reinvented as a day to celebrate the love of family." According to the article, all of us parental folk now spend the red-and-pink-colored occasion throwing "family love parties," baking Valentine's Day goodies, buying valentine-oriented gifts for the kids and enjoying meals of heart-shaped pancakes.
"There's a kid-centricity in our culture today," business professor Kit Yarrow tells the Free Press, adding, "It's a completely different holiday than it was for the parents of today's kids."
I'm not going to deny that Valentine's Day is focused on children. It's kind of hard to do that when I am currently faced with the prospect of writing valentines for every child in my two-year-old's daycare class. But I'm not sure I buy into the notion that this is a new phenomenon.
Maybe my childhood was unusual, but I remember my parents making a big deal about Valentine's Day, putting up decorations, giving us small gifts and baking cookies. It seemed to me the event was just as much about us as it was about the romance between our parents. Of course, my perception of all this could be understandably biased. But that's my recollection.
Besides, if Valentine's Day hadn't always been a child-centric thing, would the greeting card companies have been selling all those kiddie valentines for as long as they have? Would there have been a Charlie Brown Valentine special? Would Ralph Wiggum have been able to "choo- choo-choose" Lisa Simpsons in that classic Valentine's Day episode of "The Simpsons"?
Sure, there may be more Valentine's Day products available for kids these days than there were when we moms and dads were young, but I think that's just a fuction of companies doing what they always do: take advantage of the bump in commerce that holiday shopping inevitably brings. The same increase in commercialism has happened with Halloween and almost every other holiday you could name.
But maybe it's just me. Do you think Valentine's Day has radically transformed into a family-oriented affair? And will you be focused this Feb. 14 on your significant other, or the kids?
Image: Meta Dad
Related Links:
