Valentine’s Day… you either love it or loathe it, often because of memories of past (or expectation of future) disasters. We asked babyworld members what their best and worst Valentine’s experiences were… and wonder what on earth men see in Wellies!
‘Cycling 80 miles to see me’
‘The most romantic thing my husband ever did was get up at 3.00am to cycle 80 miles to come and see me when we first started going out. It was just before we started university and he couldn’t afford the train fare. I don’t know where to start on least romantic. Maybe when he sent someone else a Valentine’s card because she was upset she didn’t get one. He forgot to give me one, the person who he was engaged to.’Fredi
‘He gave me green wellies’
‘I must be married to the least romantic man in the world. His worst-ever attempt were the green wellies he brought me one Valentines Day! But saying that I don’t think I’ve ever done anything romantic for him either, I’m just not into all this sloppy stuff.’ Wendy
‘Sending me flowers each week that I was away’
‘The most romantic think my partner has done was when I was going abroad for a month last year. He took me to a stunning hotel where there was chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne. We had a bubble bath and the he gave me a beautiful charm bracelet. Then, while I was away, he sent me Interflora flowers every week till I came home. My mother’s
house looked like a florist by time I came back! I’m going to remind him of this tonight, standards are slipping!’ Bel79
‘The Maldives … and a garden chair’
‘The most romantic thing would be taking me to the Maldives and proposing. The least romantic would be buying me a garden chair for our second wedding anniversary. Standards have definitely slipped here!’ Em
‘Being so secretive about my surprise birthday party that I thought he was having an affair’
‘He used to do a lot before we had the children, I adored him. The thing that really sticks in my mind is when he organised a surprise birthday party for me. I’d always moaned about never having parties when I was a child so he organised an old-fashioned children’s party for me when I was 26. I cried, especially as I’d been arguing with him and told him I was thinking of leaving because he was acting so secretively and so strangely and wouldn’t tell me why. I thought he was having an affair. I think least romantic has to be showing me ear wax he’d pulled out of his ears and having to look if he’d got piles (which he had).’ Maria
‘He’d written a reason why he loved me on each of the chocolates’
‘My husband once bought me a very expensive box of chocolates, wrapped each one in a piece of red silk and on each one he’d written a reason he loved me. In place of one choc was an eternity ring… When we were first seeing each other, (in the days of the Milk Tray ads), he dressed head to toe in black, climbed the side of my three-story accommodation block, and left a box of chocs on my bed. Trouble is he nearly got shot as we were both in the Army at the time – they thought he was IRA.’ Susan
‘Wellies and screen wash’
‘For our last anniversary I got a pair of wellies (in his defence, I had mentioned that
I liked them) and I once got a bottle of screen wash for my birthday (although
we did go out for dinner too).’ Allyson
‘Lemonade Sparkles are the way to my heart’
‘My husband is always doing lovely, thoughtful things for me (it’s a perk of not being together too much) but the thing that melted my heart was when I was pregnant with our second son and craving lemonade sparkles soooo much at 3am that I thought I would die (or kill) without them. He got into the car and drove to all the garages, all the 24-hour supermarkets he could find but he couldn’t find them, so he came home all apologetic.
That morning he took our older children to school and didn’t come back for two hours; I thought he had fallen asleep (and perhaps had an accident). However, what he had done was call directory enquiries to get Walls’ phone number, called them and asked them to ask where they supplied them to and then had driven there to get me four boxes (apparantly the lady he spoke to at Walls said if I ever didn’t appreciate him, for him to come find her as he was just the type of man she wished she had married). The following week at work he turned up with more and filled the freezer in the staff kitchen with them, so I could have one whenever the craving hit.’ Gail
‘It’s the little things that count’ My husband isn’t really overly romantic in the traditional sense, but he does a lot for me on a daily basis. He’s always making sure I’m happy and if I’ve had a stressful day, he will come in and immediately take over. Those are the things that mean most to me, and although the surprise hotel stay for one of my birthdays was wonderful, the one thing that springs to mind was when I broke my leg. I would come downstairs every morning to my breakfast laid out (he would do this at 5am before going to work)… bowl with cereal covered so it didn’t spoil (so I didn’t have to put the cereal box back), spoon by the side etc. He would also put bottles of water in every room so I didn’t
have to carry them… He has also written me poems. He’ll do for me anyway!’ Carole
‘Instead of a bunch of flowers, I got a four-pack of Flowers branded beer’
‘Sadly, can’t think of anything very romantic. My partner left it till Valentine’s Day evening to get me a card (we were living together) and then found out that the shop down the road had sold out of cards. So, he got me a ‘Get Well Soon’ card instead, and crossed out that message
and replaced it with ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’. After he’d been told that flowers would have been appropriate, he fronted up with a 4-pack of Flowers branded beer.’ mousy
‘We got engaged and then married on Valentine’s Day’
‘We got engaged on Valentine’s Day and got married on a Valentine’s Day too! On our first
anniversary, he booked us a weekend in the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night, and even got the same room. My husband is very romantic.’ Sarah
‘Bubbly and sore bums’
‘My husband isn’t too hot in the romance department. I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t want to; I don’t think he knows how to! Although once he did pre-order a bottle of champagne to be given to me on a flight, which was nice. The least romantic was definitely when he bent over the bed and asked me to put talc on his bum e as it was sore.’ Mella
‘Writing “I love you” in the frost on the windscreen’
‘I remember the first winter we were living together. It was a really harsh frost one morning and I went to get in the car for work and he’d written ‘I love you’ in the ice on the front windscreen. Made me cry!’ Tracy
‘He bought me a new motor for the washing machine’
‘A few years ago, the washing machine packed up and so my partner got me a new motor for it. That was my Valentine’s present. Who said romance was dead, eh?’ Jo
‘He has his own type of romance’
‘My husband is romantic in his own way – and that’s not me making excuses! He’ll do
things like buy me Hobnobs when my period’s due, bring me flowers cause he thought I’d like them, write notes and so on. He’s not classically a romantic, but certainly sweet and his heart is in the right place!’ chocolatedippy
‘Leaving me love notes on his pillow or on the fridge’
‘My husband is very romantic, sometimes to the point where others want to pull the sick face. I say it’s jealously! He does lots of little things almost daily, like if I am sleeping when he leaves for work in the morning he will leave a little love note on his pillow for me to find or on the fridge. He calls during the day just to hear my voice, he also goes beyond this and sorts childcare with my parents and whisks me off somewhere for an evening or even a weekend. The last one was to New York for our anniversary. He evens sends pretty cards to our daughter through the post because he knows she loves to get mail.’ Alfene
‘He was brilliant when I was pregnant’
‘The most romantic… well, he doesn’t do much in the way of grand gestures, mainly because we don’t have the spare cash. He does do quite a lot though in the way of little gestures such as flowers, chocolates, little gifts whenever he goes shopping alone etc. He also has written me poems in the past, some a bit saucy, and some just because he is much better at writing
than speaking, according to him, and they did make me cry. He comes into his own when I am pregnant. With my last two babies, I suffered with SPD and my mobility was very restrictive. He would dress me in the mornings, go out of his way to make sure I didn’t have to do anything remotely strenuous, and then each night he’d run me a bath and help me into it. After that,to help ease the pain and insomnia I suffered, he would light some candles,
help me out the bath, dry me, and massage me from feet to neck until I fell asleep. He did this most nights for the whole time I was pregnant, without being asked, prompted, or making out it was a bother, just because he wanted to. I adore him.’ Rach
‘Writing 100 reasons why he loves me’
‘We were 4,000 miles apart for our first Valentine’s Day, so he organised something
with one of my friends. He ordered some flowers to be delivered to my job and he sent a DVD to her and he arranged for her to put them in my office to find when I got in. He had the same DVD and we watched them, together, while we were ‘with’ each other on our cell phones. Last year, among other things, he gave me a card and it said “These are just some
of the things that I love about you” and inside he had written about 100 different things.’ Danielle
‘He’d hidden clues to my engagement ring all over the house’
‘One Christmas Day, before we were married, I opened a pressie and it was a shaver box. I was a bit surprised (didn’t think my tash was that obvious) but inside was a note with a clue and I had to crack the clue to find the next one and so on until I found… a ring! They were all over the house, it had taken him ages! The most unromantic was the clothes brush he bought me for our second anniversary to get rid of the fur from our two Persian cats. It was practical, yes, but not romantic!’ Fezza
‘Seeing my diamond ring in the bottom of a bowl of prawn crackers’
‘When I was still living in Oz and my partner was in the UK we met up for a week in Singapore. He bought me a beautiful diamond ring which I absolutely loved. Three months later he took me to the Rainbow Room in NY and I took my ring off to wash my hands…and forgot to put it back on again. By the time I got back to the restroom it was gone and I was absolutely mortified and gutted. My partner was fantastic about it, not angry at all. Anyway, four months later we went out for dinner at our favourite Chinese and started eating our prawn crackers. When there were only a few left I noticed something twinkling at the bottom
of the basket… and it was my ring! He’d rung the shop in Singapore and had an exact replica made!’ Charlie
