Unreasonable Valentine's Expectations

By Saxon Evans

Valentine’s Day is the most celebrated holiday around the world for couples. Every year, people expect gifts and grand gestures from their partners. However, some people feel entitled to a lot more than others, and at what point does it become unreasonable?

The problem begins when you are little, you are told that your boyfriend or girlfriend should get you candy, chocolates, flowers, and toys. If they don’t get you a physical object to display their affection, “they’re not worth it.”  This instills a lasting expectation: "If you don’t buy me something good, you don’t love me.” It has become a cultural norm to expect a fancy item, even tween/teen couples are expecting their partners to buy them luxury items. Teenage girls assume that they should get huge gifts every month, for example, the “Boo Basket,” in October, the “Gobble Basket,” in November, and the “Burr Basket,” In December and January.

It starts becoming standard practice to get your partner a big gift every month, it forces you to get an even bigger gift for Valentine’s Day. Many people fear if they don’t top what they do throughout the rest of the year, their spouses will think that they don’t care and that they are going to leave and find someone who can get them more. However, I firmly disagree with all of this logic. Of course, it would be great to receive a nice gift or to be able to buy your partner something extravagant, but that's not realistic for most people and it shouldn’t be expected. Your love for someone shouldn’t be based on how much they buy you or how many gifts they get you, that’s not the principle of love and Valentine’s Day. It is a day that is meant to celebrate your relationship and be grateful for the amazing people in your life who love you. 

As I circle back, I just want to preface that I don’t think that buying big gifts is a bad thing. If you can afford to do something huge then by all means, go ahead. I just want to bring to light that the quality of your Valentine’s Day and your relationship shouldn’t be measured in materialistic things, it should be measured in how loved you feel and how much you care for the person that you are with.