Parenting Tip #66 Love Needs of Children

I used a valentine Bingo game for piano lessons this week. On the back of each heart it said what the student was to play. One of the hearts said to “kiss your mother” (my moms are always at the lesson since I teach Suzuki piano). It was very interesting and surprising to see the reaction this heart brought. Some girls jumped up and quickly went to the couch where their mother was sitting and gave her a kiss—which is what I expected to happen. Other girls made a face and didn’t want to. Most of the boys didn’t want to give their mother a kiss but one 10 year old boy said, “oh, that’s easy” and gave his mom a great big kiss.

How do you show love to your children? How do they show love to you? Are you a touchy-hugging sort of person or a business-like “do your homework, get your chores done, good night-now get in bed”sort of parent. Does your child cling or whine and hang around you constantly?

You probably have heard about the 5 love languages. http://www.5lovelanguages.com/learn-the-languages/the-five-love-languages/
Children also have a love language. http://www.mesacc.edu/dept/d46/psy/dev/Spring99/schoolage/love.html
Ask these questions to your child to find out what his/her primary love language is. http://crcpeninsula.org/Love_Languages_Children_Guiz.pdf

“In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” Eva Burrows

“Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children.” Rosaleen Dickson

Go show your child some love!