The Best Valentine's Day Date

Who says Valentine's Day has to be for lovers? Traditionally this has been the case, but we now live in a society of singles. Besides that, most of us are singles with kids. So how does a single parent spend Valentine's Day...trying to find a babysitter, working, feeling sorry for themselves because they don't have a date? Is any of that fair or, better yet, is any of it healthy?

When I became the dreaded single parent, I was twenty-four and my children, both boys, were three and one years old. By the time Valentine's Day rolled around that year I was seeing someone but it wasn't serious enough to be a definite Valentine's Day date, besides, formality wasn't really the nature of our relationship. I looked at my older son, three months shy of his fourth birthday, and thought that he might just be the best date I could have. I went and took a bath, shaved my legs, fixed my hair, and put on a dress that looked great on me now that I had the "I just broke up" standard weight loss. I then went to my son's closet, pulled out dress pants, a dress shirt, a clip on tie, and dress shoes. I got him dressed as I told him that we were going on a special Valentine's Day date, just him and I.

Since my son has been tall enough to open a door I have told him to, "Always hold the door for a lady. But every woman is not a lady so choose carefully." When we got to the restaurant, he held the door for me. My heart melted, at least someone saw me as a lady and not some poor, young, single mom (awww). As we went in I told him to go up to the lady at the podium and tell her we needed a table for two. He did, and when she asked for a last name I told him to say his. This concerned him, because his father and I were never married, we didn't have the same last name. I explained that it was normal procedure on a date to give the man's last name for the table reservation. While we waited for our table I slipped a fifty-dollar bill in his shirt pocket, winked at him, and told him that tonight, he'd be paying.

As the hostess showed us to our table, I told him that on a date a man should always wait till his date is seated

before he sits down and that if there are individual chairs he should pull it out for her. We were sat at a booth and, like a perfect gentleman, my son waited till I was seated and then asked if he could sit next to me instead of on the other side. Of course, I said yes and we looked at the menu. By this age my son would already order his own food because it has always been a particular peeve of mine when someone makes a waitress wait a long time while they stumble over their order knowing good and well they have been to that particular restaurant a hundred times and they always get a steak and baked potato but still they seem shocked when the waitress asks two inevitable questions; How would you like your steak? What would you like on your baked potato? So I told my son that he would be ordering for me as well. I told him what I wanted and how to tell the waitress, starting with, " I will have..." and continuing the order with, " And my date will have..." He did surprisingly well and only needed slight prompting.

He already knew to put his napkin in his lap at a restaurant and so I didn't have to harp on those kinds of things. We talked. He asked me what other kinds of things did people do on dates and I told him the normal things; the movies, walks at the Riverwalk, parties. He asked if we could go for a walk at the Riverwalk after we ate and I said yes. After we finished eating, he paid. The waitress thought this was adorable. He explained that we were on a date, which got him smiles from all the wait staff as we left since our waitress had obviously told everyone that was in earshot about our special Valentine's date. After we left, we went for a walk on the Riverwalk, and then we went home.

We went on another Valentine's date the next year and when my younger son turned three we included him as well. Ever since then, I have had two dates on Valentine's Day. Now, my sons are eight and ten and I am married. We still go on our date every year, just them and me. They open my car door for me and have real conversations at dinner. When they grow up and I have to give this tradition up, at least I will know that they know how to treat a lady. Hopefully, I can count on them to choose correctly.