With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this is a great time to teach your kids about the value of love. Make sure they understand that love goes beyond heart-shaped candies and red roses.
Chocolates, roses, candies, teddy bears. Valentine’s Day, as most holidays is advertised as a consumer’s paradise. With a soon to come red and pink overflow of advertisements, it is important to teach young kids that love is not measured or expressed in ‘things’.
Show your children you love them by giving them your time. Turn off the TV, close the computer, and be with them rather than just near them. Your time is the most valuable thing you can give another person, so give it to your children to show them how much you love them. Teach them that actions are the best way to express love.
And say it. Tell your kids you love them. You probably already do … a lot. But do it more. Leave them little notes in their lunch boxes or under their pillows. This will remind them of your love even when you are not with them.
While you may feel tempted to give in to the material side of Valentine’s Day, teaching your children to express love through actions, words and time spent together will be far more beneficial and valuable.
Remember, kids ultimately adopt actions they see. So lead by example and teach your kids that love goes far beyond the material world. It is something you can show and share without the need of a fancy object. It is a feeling before it is anything else.
(This doesn’t mean you have to skip out on the holiday’s traditional activities like cutting out heart-shaped cards. Just make sure you explain the value behind the material things and how love is much more.)
Isabella Arteaga
No responses yet