I have principles. One of them is that school Valentines are indulgent and bad for the environment.
I have written Markets in Everything for school Valentine’s
And here are some quotes from Do Less for Preschool
Just fail, people. Don’t even put “crazy sock day” on your work Outlook calendar…
Oh no. If AI lifts the constraint of time, then what we are going to get is more crazy sock days. To stay ahead in the status competition, families will have to do Bluey-Crazy Sock Day every week. The ocean will become a thick soup of polyester Bluey-crazy-socks, size 3T, worn only once.
On principle, I did low-effort Valentine’s last year. I spent as little of my own time and money as I could. My kids wrote their friends’ names on the paper things. Smugly, I imagined that I’d saved the dolphins in the tuna nets and helped some other mom feel like she was doing okay.
Who do you imagine is upset? Not the other moms. My kids. The older one especially feels in his body that failing this test in February of 2026 will result in expulsion from the tribe and death in the outer darkness beyond the reach of the campfire.
Guess what I care about more than dolphins? We will do more this year.
Preschool kids do not care and should not be asked to care. I still believe that parents and daycare directors should do less for preschool. Truly, I see no reason, at all, for a preschool dress up day or Valentine’s Day party. Can someone think of the dolphins before it’s too late and the kid grows up and starts caring about the status wars?
Economist Writing Every Day 