Bill Corbett

14 DAYS OF TIPS FOR DEMONSTRATING LOVE TO YOUR CHILD DAY 2: READ A SPECIAL BOOK Find a child’s illustrated book that sends a message of love and commit to reading it to your children every night, leading up to Valentine’s Day. My favorite is the book LOVE YOU FOREVER by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw. It sends the message that I’ll always love you unconditionally, no matter how you behave and well into your adult years.

14 DAYS OF TIPS FOR DEMONSTRATING LOVE TO YOUR CHILD DAY 1: HIDE LOVE NOTES OR SURPRISES – Toddlers to teens love to be surprised. Hide a small valentine, an encouraging note, or a small valentine chocolate somewhere for them to find each day leading up to Valentine’s Day. Get creative and mix it up. You could also leave a note each day in one place that contains clues to helping them find what you’ve hidden.

Have you ever seen or experienced this scenario: you (or another parent) arrive home from a grocery shopping trip and walk in with arms full of over stuffed bags. You see your older kids intently focused on a video game or a television show and shout out, "Please give me a hand and bring in some grocery bags from the car." Your plea for help seems to fall on deaf ears and if you are successful at getting any of them to move, they drag themselves out to the car and walk in with one bag, place it on the table, and return to the video screen. Resentment then rises from the pit of your stomach because of all the things you do for them (like buy them video games or 42" plasma screens to watch them on) and you storm into the room where they are playing and either use the guilt parenting tool or you shut off the screen and yell (or just walk out).  Want to change that scenario from playing out any further? Read this FAMILY GOES STRONG blog post with helpful tips f...