Blogger at Late Enough 
I walk into a local kids’ clothing store to find Valentine’s Day clothing for my kids. I’m a total sucker for the holiday clothing lines.
My kids have 2-3 Christmas ensembles, a couple of Halloween shirts and at least one Peep This in the Easter collection. And this year, for some reason my husband can’t understand, I went crazy for Valentine’s Day. I decide that no one in my life will be allowed to feel unloved that day. Luckily, I’m an introvert so I don’t have a lot of people to worry about.
So I went off to pick out a shirt that they will wear once. Actually, I try to chose outfits that are versatile enough to be worn throughout the season. Halloween shirts with pumpkins can be worn in November. Christmas dresses with sparkling snowflakes are fine in February.
And hearts are good year ‘round in this home. Except I was thwarted. Not by my daughter who could’ve dressed in hearts from the 14th through the summertime if I bought every option but for my son.
Me after wandering around my go-to holiday clothing store for 30 minutes: Um, do you have an boy Valentine’s Day shirts?
Sales person that I wasn’t even speaking to: NO! {laughs although I can’t see what’s so funny} He could just wear red.
Being a bit underwhelmed by her fashion suggestions, I reply with so much niceness that I surprise myself: Yes, well, we have red shirts at home, but I was hoping for something special for him to wear at his Valentine’s Day party at school.
Her: Well, we did have this one “I’m Your Romeo” but I think we sold out.
Oh yes, just what my 5 year old son needs. A shirt about him falling in love and killing himself. Next, you’ll suggest the “Playground Pimp” shirt I saw at another store, and I’ll see if all the girls can be prostitutes for the day.
Me: Hmmm, that isn’t what I was really going for. It’s a bummer how hard it is to find good boy clothing…
Both our eyes drift around the store that is 75% girls clothing and mostly trucks and skulls in a small corner for the boys.
Her {nodding empathetically FINALLY}: Good boys clothes are definitely harder to find.
We ended up with a new Yoshi Shirt and a red shirt underneath, but I forget to take a photo far away enough for you to see it. Not that it’s actually a Valentine shirt by any means.
Next, I went to Hallmark to get Valentine’s Day card for my kids. Except Hallmark thinks boys only like Toy Story characters and dogs and then moves on to the girls.
My son is mostly afraid of dogs and has also only seen Toy Story 1. He was definitely not as impressed as I was when I saw it in the movie theatre as the first completely computer animated movie.
I even went to the birthday, thank you and blank card sections looking for a cat and heart or a ninja or cat ninja playing soccer or really any combination of things without dogs or Buzz or Justin Beiber. I finally found a cat in a candy shop valentine card hitting two of his favorites and pretty much the only card that had anything to do with my son.
I know for many heterosexual adults Valentine’s Day is about women, but my kids aren’t even in elementary school. Could fashion lines and card makers let my boy celebrate for a few more years before I hand him the keys to get flowers and a condom?
