Valentine’s Day has become a day to celebrate with the person you love, traditionally giving them flowers and chocolates, followed by dinner and a movie. But, as you know, after you have kids, you form a whole new love, a love that is like no other, a love that withstands all elements, even separation, and divorce.
With this love, it brings a whole new meaning and opportunity to Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day can be a great way to begin teaching your children about love and healthy relationships! Whether you are teaching them the different types of love, the acts of selflessness for those you love, or preparing them for the dating world, Valentine’s Day can be a great opportunity to teach your children about the importance of love, life, and relationships.
Preparing Children To Have Healthy Relationships
Why is this so important? The divorce rate has reached 50% while the rate of children born out of wedlock has passed 40% of all children. The importance of relationships, marriage, and family has rapidly crumbled within our society. Children who come from separated and divorced families are at higher risk themselves of going through separation and divorce. It is our role as a parent to help guide our children and prepare them for life. What could be more important than helping prepare them to have healthy relationships with friends, family, and future partner?
How is Valentine’s Day for kids? Children already see the hearts, candy, teddy bears, and cards at the stores and most likely participate in Valentine’s Day giving at school, but, what are they really learning from this sugarcoated celebration? What if we told you that there are some great teaching opportunities you can provide your children through Valentine’s Day?
You can use Valentine’s Day as a tool to help teach your children about love and relationships, you can help promote the importance of love, compassion, healthy relationships, and so much more! For young children, you can begin teaching them about what love is, the different types of love (such as parents, children, husband, and wife), and how you may treat those you love different than other people in your life. For older children, teachings could include healthy behaviors and boundaries, healthy relationships, and the importance of marriage and family.
Use Valentine’s Day to Teach Children Healthy Relationship Values
We’re sure you can think of age-appropriate ways to teach your children these important values of selflessness, love, compassion, healthy relationships, and the importance of family, but let’s hear what some of your peers plan to do with their children this Valentine’s Day!
Mark – “Make a scrapbook of their favorite pictures with their parents.”
Mark is going to be creating a scrapbook with his son this Valentine’s Day. What a beautiful project that truly lasts a lifetime! As part of this project, Mark will be promoting his child’s relationship with their mother. They will be making a scrapbook that includes both of his parents. This in itself is a great learning opportunity. It shows respect and healthy relationships between the child’s parents, allows the child to openly express love for both sides of the family, and not only allows but encourages, the relationship with both parents.
Sue – “We always do Valentine’s Day projects and create artwork, I always encourage my children to create artwork for their father!”
Creating artwork is great for children, it sparks their imagination! Further, creating handcrafted artwork for their parent, while they are with you, is a great way to encourage the relationship with their other parent. It also serves as such a great way for children just beginning to express their emotions. Art is a great way for children to begin showing those they love, how they feel to help them gain deeper insight to their emotions and love itself.
Linda – “I’m going to bake with my daughter. We love baking, and we’re going to make Valentine’s Day cookies, if she wants to decorate some for her dad then that’s great.”
Shared interests with your children offer a great way to strengthen bonds! This is another way for a child to express their love for their parents. By creating artwork and making specially decorated baked goods teaches children to express their individual, separate, and unique love for those special people in their lives. This may include special events or things they particularly love about their parents or family members and helps children grasp the knowledge and understanding of the different types of love.