3 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day with your Kids
/For Valentine’s Day, I always try to get a small gift for my boys to share in the celebration of love and take a little extra time to show them how much I love them. This year, I purchased custom wooden tic-tac-toe boards for Ben and AJ, and, while this is what I chose to do with my family, I wanted to take time to share three ways you can share Valentine’s Day with your rascals.
Tell them you love them. Start simple by telling them that you love them and explaining what Valentine’s Day is. Try explaining different kinds of love, such as romantic love, family love, friendship love, the love between siblings, or any other types of love that you want your kid(s) to know about. Right now, my boys are at a point where the people they love most in the world are me and my husband. Since they don’t fully understand the different kinds of love, when I try explaining marriage to them as picking the person you love enough to spend the rest of your life with them, they’ll say, “I’m gonna marry you, Mom!” It warms my heart to see what their understanding of love is, and I try to take these small moments to teach them.
Make a meal together. Teach your kids that there are a ton of different ways to express your love for one another. Sharing experiences together is just one of many. Consider cooking a Valentine’s Day dinner or dessert together. Doing this is a great way to teach your children that you can show love not only through shared experiences, but also through acts of service and doing things for each other. Make sure to cater your meal or treat to something that matches their skillset so they can feel involved and included. If your rascals aren’t old enough to be super hands-on in the kitchen yet, a simple, easy, and safe dessert to make together is heart-shaped cookies. You handle the oven, and then take on decorating together!
Teach them the importance of sharing love. Teach your children the importance of being inclusive with their love. This can be done in a number of ways; find the one that works for you and your family. One way to teach your children to be inclusive with their love is to explain why it’s important to get a valentine card for everyone in their class if you opt to have them bring valentines. As a kid, I didn’t understand why our teachers would require us to bring valentines for the entire class or not at all, but as an adult, I understand how damaging it can be to feel left out. Make sure you explain to your rascals that, if they want to bring valentines, they’ll need to bring enough for everyone so no one goes home empty-handed or feeling unloved. Another more subtle way to teach them the importance of being inclusive with love is to not make their love fit into traditional gender roles. This is something I like to emphasize with my boys because, growing up, I didn’t see the boys around me feel comfortable expressing their love for each other, even just as friends. As a girl, I always felt the freedom to tell my girl friends that I loved them or to show them, but I didn’t see this with the boys. Boys grow up with an expectation to be tough with their love, which can impact them negatively in the long-run. I want my boys to grow up knowing that showing love is not a weakness, and the ability to share love is a strength like no other.
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Written by Head Rascal (Ngoc Nguyen Lay), mother of two rascals, ages 6 and 9. Photos by Simply Adri Photography. Wooden Board Games from PB Corner. Lava Card by Lovepop.
