Should you feel upset if your man doesn’t believe in Valentine’s Day? Mr Answer Man sticks up for the men who don’t join in

Valentine’s Day is a funny one. Grown men tend not to believe in Santa Claus but still engage in the whole present-buying process. But if a guy is adamant he doesn’t ‘believe’ in the concept of Valentine’s Day, rarely will he be prepared to buy cards, gifts, flowers, etc, for his partner. A slap-up chicken korma and a couple of poppadoms down your local curry house is as romantic as it’s likely to get.

I definitely don’t think you should lose any sleep if you don’t wake up to a bouquet of red roses on February 14th, though. What’s infinitely more important is how your partner treats you on the other 364 days of the year. Put it this way, anyone can run out and buy a £1.49 card and a bunch of flowers, but it takes more than that to prove love and respect. It’s what he does for you every day that really counts.

Many people (women and men) feel left out when they go to work and everyone else is bragging about how many sacks of cards they got from the postman – we’re all human after all – but you can bet your life that they’re stretching the truth. Valentine’s Day is different from Christmas in that it doesn’t really have spiritual resonance – it’s been reinvented by the greeting card industry as an excuse to sell naff cards and weird cushions. And when you think of it in those terms, it’s got very little to do with being a celebration of love. So don’t be too concerned if you don’t get the whole romantic deal this year, but do complain if you don’t get that korma.