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If Your Love Language isn’t “Gifts” It’s Time for the Valentine’s Day Talk
What to do when a tradition makes you uncomfortable
My family knows if they ever give me an ornament it will go straight in the bin. It’s become a bit of a joke. I expect one day my kids will beautifully wrap the creepiest ornament they can find, just to laugh at my reaction.
Gifts are not my love language in any way. Giving gifts or receiving gifts (especially ornaments) feels stressful. What if I get the wrong thing and they hate it? What if I hate what I’m given and have to display it on the shelf in the lounge; have it stare at me with its creepy ornament eyes every time I pass by.
But now Valentine’s Day is approaching and I’m newly married. In fact, Valentine’s Day happens to fall on our three-month wedding anniversary. Shouldn’t there be some kind of acknowledgement of that? Aren’t we meant to fawn over each other with newlywed romantic gestures? With V-day sifting around in the dark back-alleys of my mind ready to pounce, I felt my new hubby and I needed to have “the conversation.”
Watching most kids you’d think everyone was born with a “gifts” love-language. Maybe we are and experience knocks it out of us? My gift experiences as a kid were certainly a mixed bag.
