As you may have noticed by now, I love the concept of blessing those around us. By blessing I mean showering them with the love of God and making them feel loved and special. My book coming out soon, Bless Your Husband, is about, well, I’ll let you figure that out. 🙂 Today we’re going to focus on blessing our kids. Here are 10 quick ways that you can bless your kids and make them feel special even on busy days.
1. Ask them what they’d like on the dinner menu next week and make it
This is such a simple way to show your kids that they matter. I don’t do this every single week, but often when I am making my shopping list (or wandering around the grocery store), I’ll ask my kids what sounds good for dinner, then I make sure to include it on the menu. Rather than just adding in meals I know they like (which is also a great thing to do) giving them a choice in the matter and letting them know that I want to make things they like blesses them in a different way.
2. Let them choose the music in the car
Again, another simple action that shows your kids that you care about their preferences. When I’m driving, I let my kids choose the music more than fifty percent of the time. Of course, I still make them listen to my music, and I dance along, too. How else will they get a great musical education? But the older they get, the more I let them choose. Fortunately for me, my girls have great taste in music (which I like to think I had a little to do with, not that they’d admit it). But even if they’re listening to funky screamo music, give them a little time to rock and try to enjoy it with them. This kind of goes along with the next item on our list…
3. Learn about what they are interested in
Besides their funky taste in music, make time to learn about and experience the things they love. My husband and I have more random Broadway and Marvel trivia bouncing around in our brains than we ever would if it weren’t for our fan-girl daughter. But we like to get into what she’s into. Because we love her, we try to love what she loves. Maybe not on the same obsessive scale, but still. Besides making your kids feel valued, being interested in what they’re into gives you more bonding time and something to help you connect.
4. Bring Them Breakfast in Bed
Every time my kids happen to mention that I’ve brought them breakfast in bed, without fail someone says, “you’re so spoiled!” Maybe they are a little spoiled. But guess what? On average over their childhood, I do this about once a year. It’s not like I’m serving them breakfast in bed every day and they get to lounge around in the mornings like the married ladies on Downton Abbey. (Is that anyone else’s fantasy? Or just me?)
It’s just a nice way to go the extra mile and show your kids some love once in a while.
5. Make Time for Individual Dates
One on one time is so important if you want to develop friendships with your kids. This can be a quick thing if you’re pressed for time. Take one kid with you to run errands and squeeze in a coffee date.
Or choose one night a month and take one kid out for ice cream and just hang out. Rotate through all of your children so that everyone gets a chance. My husband and I used to take turns taking each kid out (we only had 2 at home) a couple times a month. We’d all meet up afterwards and talk about the fun we had.
6. Get Messy Together
Especially if your kids are younger. Yes, we need to teach our kids to be neat and to be considerate of the environment they are in. But I think we should also let them play in the mud and we should make mud pies with them. Paint with your kids, make slime, let them bake. Get messy together and don’t freak out about keeping things perfect. If you’re really freaked out about the mess, take your activities outside where you can clean up with a hose.
Enjoying hands-on fun without worrying about making a mess is something all kids should be able to experience. And if you can turn off your inner neat freak, it’ll be fun for you, too.
7. Celebrate Little Things
Look for the little things to celebrate. An improved grade, an athletic accomplishment, a renewed friendship. Have a special dinner or dessert, or just give the one being celebrated a “you are special today” plate and make a big fuss over the guest of honor. You have to eat anyway, you may as well incorporate some fun family times. These are the dinners your kids will remember decades later.
8. Create Traditions
Traditions don’t have to be time consuming or stressful. Simple things like having pumpkin pancakes on the first day of fall or doing a store-bought advent calendar at Christmas time is not only something kids can look forward to, it’s something they’ll remember for years to come. Traditions themselves are based in remembering. They cause us to stop in our every day lives and set time aside to honor holidays or special events. Your kids may even grow up and continue the traditions with their own families one day, carrying your legacy onto future generations.
9. Laugh and have fun together
I actually switched out one item on this list for this one, because as I write this post, my daughter has been texting me and we’re carrying on a conversation that is making both of us laugh out loud. My girls and I have very similar sense of humor, and it’s something I love about or relationship. Even if your kid’s sense of humor differs from yours, find a way to laugh with them regularly.
If you don’t have a lot of laughter in your life, seek it out. Find a good comedian (like Tim Hawkins; Christian, clean, and downright hilarious. Here is one of his DVDs that we got for Christmas. We literally had tears running down our faces from laughing!). Other ideas: Watch a funny movie, look up jokes or memes online, play funny board games, whatever can make you share a giggle with your kids.
10. Hands on foot rub, neck rub, or hand massage
For the child who feels loved with physical touch, this is essential. For everyone else, it’s a blessing unique to any of the others listed here. Even just making sure you hug them a few times a day is important. Hugging actually releases serotonin in their brain and makes them feel happier. I had told my kids this when my youngest was little, and she used to come up to me and say, “Want me to release chemicals from your brain?” I thought it was adorable, but sometimes strangers gave me funny looks.
What is your favorite way to bless your kids?
An image to pin!
**There are affiliate links in this post, but it is not sponsored. We really do love Tim Hawkins and he has no idea who we are.**
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