Craptastic Valentine's Day, from your kid's teacher

I've been seeing a bunch of really cute kids' crafts for Valentine's Day popping up on Pinterest.  They look super fun and really cute.  Some are way too advanced for even me, but have at- I say.  I began growing concerned when I started seeing things like, "Super cute for kid's teacher!"; "Teacher gift idea"; "Great for kid's teacher!" on a bunch of these crafts.  Alarm bells really started going off when I saw a pipe cleaner heart to be used as a pencil topper labeled as a fantastic teacher gift.  Don't get me wrong, I think doing Valentine's Day crafts with your kids is awesome.  Just don't pawn them off on your poor kid's teacher!

I used to be a teacher before I had my daughter.  I didn't have my own kids, so my students were like my children.  And I had 32 of them in one room, all day long.  Believe me, I received PLENTY of crappy cute crafts. 

Valentine's Day was a day I always loved as a teacher.  We got to have an actual party, exchange Valentines, consume mass amounts of sugar, and then I shipped the kids home.  Though, the last couple of years it did seem to start to go downhill.  Why?  Craptastic teacher gifts.  No longer was I getting gigantic Hersey's kisses,

This is the way to get your kid an A

 

massive quantities of chocolate roses,

Last much longer than real ones, maybe...

 

or an unhealthy load of Valentine's candy. 

Just look at all those green ones.

 

 

No, I was getting things like this:

Heart people at Stamping Country

 

 

Toilet paper roll craft at Sweet and Lovely Crafts

 

 

Heart Butterflies at blog me mom

 

 

Now, don't get me wrong.  All these crafts are ADORABLE!  I LOVE them!  I will probably even make all of them with my own kid.  I just won't send it to school for my poor kid's teacher.  

 

Teachers get a ton of stuff from their students.  (At least elementary kiddos- I probably wouldn't want anything from middle or high schoolers, yuck.)  I was constantly getting hand-drawn pictures, notes, stickers, etc.  I filed them all away for days when I felt like crap.  Then I would read them and remember I was pretty much the best teacher ever. 

 

So, when I started getting these crafts from home, I was like, "Ummm. Thanks?"  I had no room to store them, file them, or display them.  And then the kids would have broken hearts if it didn't take up residence on the front of my desk for like 6 weeks.  And I had to write a thank you for them. 

 

    Dear Parent and Kid,

  Thank you for the sparkly craft you made for me for Valentine's Day!  I sure have loved having to look at it everyday and all the glitter that has seeped into the cracks of my computer keyboard.  I love having to pick it up off of the floor after having knocked it over for the 15th time every day.  No, I don't plan on throwing it away.  I plan on using it to start a bon-fire with all the other homemade handy crap I got.  Thanks again!

 

So parents, please, don't send something to your kids teacher because you think it's cute.  They get that stuff ALL THE TIME already.  (Especially from art class because the kid doesn't want to haul it home.)   Get them what they really want for Valentine's Day:  chocolate.  And if you really like them, a cheap bottle of wine.  Because they're used to it, and can't afford the good quality stuff.  Then send your Valentine's Crafts to people who would really enjoy it, like Grandparents. 

We just got Billy's Valentine gift.  What till you see it!