Let’s face it. Not all of us get the kicks out of Valentine’s Day. Either we are single, or we’ve done literally everything that we could do with our partners, so the V Day (not to speak of the V Week) is just another day for most of us. Keeping the fact in mind that this year the Valentine’s Day is on Friday, you might as well dine out or hit the club or do something else that you might have done numerous times already. But the question is, is it all worth it? It might be, but it certainly won’t be better than spending the day with your parents and immediate family.
Why to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your parents?
1. They deserve it
Most of us take it for granted that our parents decided to bring us into the world, and then paid considerable attention to giving us what according to them was the best. It is only once you have had your own children that you find out how hard it is to raise one and how many troubles your parents might have gone through in order to make you the person that you are today. In case you don’t have children, don’t wait to have one to realize the importance of your parents. Trust us, there’s no one in the world that has more things in common with us than our parents. They are our true soulmates. Understanding them would help us better understand our own true selves.
2. It makes your relationship stronger
All of us go through ups and downs in our lives. Time and time again our parents have accepted us for all our imperfections. But as we grow up and we start discovering that our parents aren’t as perfect as we once thought they were, we slowly start going away from them. This creates a distance between us. However, if you cover your portion of the distance by accepting them for what they are, they too won’t stay far behind. Remember, relationships are the best when parents and children are like friends.
3. It makes them feel important
It goes without saying that the parents of most of us must be old by now. They might belong to a generation where ideas like culture and community had a totally different meaning than the meaning that they have today. The world has changed so much in the last few decades that most of our parents find themselves trapped in surroundings which they don’t understand at all. Nothing makes a person feel older than being analog in a digital world. We might need likes and shares on our pictures and posts to feel important, but for our parents it is human interaction.
4. You create memories
If you do the same thing again and again, would you remember it? No! You might remember the first time when you did the thing, but not after that. So, if you go on a date with your partner for the umpteenth time, most likely you won’t make a memory. At best, you might end up taking some nice pictures, that’s all. But with your parents, it would be completely different. When you acknowledge their contribution in your life, their faces start glowing automatically. No matter whether you capture such faces on camera or whether you just keep them in your hearts, they would give you memories that last a lifetime.
How to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your parents
1. Save the date
If you haven’t informed your parents that you are going to spend the day with them, they might naturally assume that you would be spending the day with your partner or your friends. So, without any delay, tell your parents that you are going to spend this Valentine’s Day with them. Informing them too late could result in something things like cancelled flight tickets. Even giving them a surprise would be a great idea, but before you do so just make sure that they would be home on Valentine’s Day. You would never want to surprise an empty house.
2. Have a family get together
As we said earlier, real life interaction is more important in our parent’s lives than it might be in ours. For most of the people of their generation, a time well-spent means would mean time spent with the people that they love and care about. So, a full family get together is what they would like the most. For that, you should invite your siblings, close relatives, and everyone who shares an intimate bond with the family. It goes without saying that when so many of you get together, not only you create a lot of new memories, you also renew a lot of old memories as well.
3. Dine Together
If you want to dine out, make sure that you make your bookings early, as you can be assured that all the good restaurants would be full very soon. However, we’d prefer that you cook at home. If you have invited other family members to the party, you can also ask them to bring along a specific dish with them. Another great idea would be to cook together at home (if your kitchen is big enough) and let everyone showcase their culinary skills. Just make sure that you don’t forget to cook the favorite dishes of your guest of honors i.e. your parents.
4. Set up a game night
No matter whether your parents like playing poker or mahjong or whether they are hooked on to something like Counter Strike and Street Fighter, don’t miss this occasion to bring their favorite game on to the table. Make sure that you involve everyone in the game either as a player or as the audience. Analog or digital, there’s nothing that captures one’s attention than an interesting game. So, use this to your advantage. Organize a tournament and set a reward for the winner of the tournament. Just remember to choose a game that your parents and guests are good at playing.
5. Give them handmade greeting cards
We advise you to not to send a Valentine E-card to your parents. They might have received hundreds of them already, and might’ve got one in the same format. Although buying a nice greeting card from the market and sending it to your parents is a better option, but it would be neither memorable nor eco-friendly. However, with handmade greeting cards you can achieve both these purposes. You can make one yourself or you can take the help of a professional. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you customize the card as much as possible. Share your true wishes, memories or anything else that makes the card especially special for your parents.
6. Organize a Valentine’s Day picnic
Even if you have an important date at night, you can at least spend the day with your parents. The best way of doing so is by going out for a picnic. Choose a nearby park or travel to one if you have to. We would suggest that you go to some place that you’ve also been to as children, as it would bring back some nostalgic memories. When it comes to strengthening the bond with your parents, nothing works quite like a picnic. Going away from the humdrum of city life to somewhere quiet and peaceful immediately relieves stress and brings you into the moment.
7. Watch their favorite film
On Valentine’s Day you might be getting all sorts of romantic flicks on the Television. But in the age of Netflix and Amazon Prime that shouldn’t be an issue. Ask your parents and try to find out which is the one flick that they enjoyed watching together when they were young. There are a lot of classics movies for Valentine’s Day out there that you can literally enjoy with anyone irrespective of their generation. Moreover, you can also check the nearby cinemas and see if they are playing any retrospective. If you are lucky in that, this could make up for a really memorable evening with your parents.
8. Read or Perform
In the age of the internet and social media, reading, singing or performing has become extremely rare. But that might not be the case when you or your parents were younger. So, for old time’s sake, reading a favorite book or performing a favorite play would be a great option. You can even take the role of a playwright and put your own family drama on paper. This would make the event unforgettable. Moreover, you can also record the video of the occasion and keep it as a memento.
Final Words
For all the singles out there, don’t just think about surviving Valentine’s Day, think about how you can make it special for the ones who love you. Don’t throw your love and affection into a bottomless well. Give them to someone who really appreciates them.