50 Times People’s Valentine’s Day Plans Went Tragically Wrong

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Personally, I love the holiday because I’ll take any excuse to eat chocolate-covered strawberries, buy myself flowers and shower my partner and friends with love. But it’s definitely a day that can come along with unnecessary pressure and expectations. If you’ve just started seeing someone romantically, it can be hard to know what an appropriate way of celebrating with them will be. If you’re interested in someone, should you take the opportunity to send them a valentine and lay your feelings all out on the table? Valentine’s Day can be a high-risk, high-reward situation, and unfortunately, sometimes, the risk leads to some tragic failures.

From being rejected to receiving rotten flowers or chocolates in the mail, Valentine’s Day just doesn’t always pan out. So it’s best to keep our expectations low. If you plan on having the most incredible evening of your life, the subsequent food poisoning or car accident that may follow will hurt twice as bad as it would have on a normal day. And while this holiday of love was not actually created by greeting card companies, as some cynics like to claim, the original spirit of the day did not include going out to extravagant restaurants and sending your partner a teddy bear the size of yourself, so don’t feel like you need to do those things either.  

Any day bursting with high expectations is an opportunity for massive disappointment, so to learn how to manage those expectations, we consulted this article written by Dr. Lisa Firestone for PsychAlive. Dr. Firestone’s first tip for avoiding being let down on V-Day is to be careful not to pile on the pressure. She explains that your partner may not have the same “sentimental feelings” about this holiday that you do, so don’t allow your mind to warp their lack of enthusiasm about Valentine’s Day into thinking that they are less invested in the relationship.

“At the end of the day, Valentine’s Day in particular, what matters most is the way your partner treats you and how you treat them the other 364 days of the year,” Dr. Firestone writes. “If he or she is affectionate, acknowledging and loving in the most ordinary, un-spotlighted moments, then you probably don’t have a lot to worry about. Keep this in mind when you plan your Valentine’s Day. Any period of time you have with someone you value can be an excuse for romance and affection. It can be filled with large and small acts of kindness, passion and love. The pressure shouldn’t fall on this one occasion to be perfect or to, in some way, represent your entire relationship.”