50 ways to Tell Your Child, “I Love You”

- By Joe White

When your child is participating in an athletic event or musical performance, be there watching.
Help your son or daughter learn a new skill such as riding a bike, making a cake, or fixing a flat tire.
Leave an “I love you” note in your child’s school lunch box.
Read an entire chapter together from your child’s favorite book.
Find a new way to trust your child by granting a new area of responsibility that he or she would both enjoy and benefit from.
After your teen aged son or daughter comes in from a date, have popcorn together.
Go out in the snow together and throw snowballs at a target (even a few at each other).
Listen to your child – with all your attention.
Help your child wash his or her bike (or tricycle).
Snuggle in bed together as you tell a goodnight story.
Have a water-pistol fight (let your kids drench you).
Make up a secret code language and write messages to one another.
Say, “I am proud of you.”
Prepare your child’s favorite dinner menu twice in a week.
Make up and tell stories with your kids as the heroes.
Bring home your child’s favorite candy bar.
Take an evening walk together.
Have a pillow fight some night at bedtime.
Play games together (e.g. Old maid, Concentration, Candyland, Sorry, Pictionary).
The bible’s love chapter says that love “is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4). Think of a special way you can show kindness to your child today.
Take nature hikes together and collect leaves, acorns, rocks, mosses, sticks, or whatever.
Spend a special time praying together for others – for the leaders and teacher in your church, for government officials, for any missionaries your child knows, for neighbors, for friends, for family members.
Keep a scrapbook of your child’s awards, newspaper clippings, photos, and so on. Get it out often and look at it together.
Invite your son’s or daughter’s friends to your home to spend the night.
Build a “faith growth chart” on which you list prayers and answers in one column and memorized bible verses in another. See your child’s faith grow!
Make popcorn, curl up together on the couch, and watch your son’s or daughter’s favorite video for the 20th time.
After a scolding, tell your child, “did you know I love you even when you’re naughty?” Then give him or her a hug.
Build and fly kites together.
Show your child a special card or picture he or she has given you that you’ve kept for a long time.
Give your child your full attention when he or she tells you what happened at school today, and provide a thoughtful response.
Compliment your child’s attempt to keep a tidy room.
Show your child one of his or her baby pictures and tell why it’s one of your favorites.
Show your daughter fix her hair in a special way.
Take a winter’s afternoon off and do a puzzle together.
Take your child out to breakfast (just the two of you) before school.
Before a big event in your child’s life – a birthday, a competition, a big test at school – decorate his or her room with crepe paper and posters.
Allow your child to plan the day for your family.
Go on a bike ride together around the neighborhood.
Take your child out for bowling or miniature gold, and go out for dinner afterward.
Display (on the refrigerator or in another prominent spot) the artwork or other creations your child made at school, Sunday school, and so on.
Ask for your child’s opinion on a big family decision.
Cook breakfast together on a Saturday morning.
Tell your spouse how proud you are of your child or something he or she did, and let him or her overhear your remarks.
As you notice your child making or doing something creative, call other family members to come and see.
Give your child a hug when he or she is feeling down.
Make sack lunches for you and your child, and enjoy them together at a local park.
Plant flowers or vegetable seeds with your child. As you together see the plants sprout and grow, tell about your child’s growth – physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually.
Talk with your child about what you believe about god.
Tell openly with your child about your most significant convictions, and ask fir his or her opinions in response.
In a relaxed moment together, talk about favorite memories. (Even younger children enjoy this – their “past” may be short in years, but relative to their ages it seems just as long as ours.) Talk about favorite gifts, favorite toys, favorite surprises.

This list is excerpted from Faith Training by Jo White. Published by Focus on the Family. (c) 1994 Joe White

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