“Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside,” Lin-Manuel Miranda of the blockbuster Hamilton when he won the Tony award in 2016 for his Broadway show.
It’s February which the advertisers likes to remind us is time to buy diamonds and chocolate, but it’s also a great month for expressing love to all those around us, including our children. Let’s face it – parenting is tough, but the unconditional love you have for them is what gets all of us through to the other side. There have most definitely been moments, days, weeks, and even years (Hello? Did anyone else get stuck in the Terrible Twos for 18 months?) when you may not particularly like your children, or revel in the day to day glory of it all, but the love remains.
We’re all unique individuals who give and receive love in different ways. How do you best enjoy receiving love: a hug, a kind word, a helping hand? How do you most enjoy giving it out: a warm meal, a hug, words of encouragement?
It’s been a while since I read the book The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman, but I just retook the quiz to remind myself of my own style. The book is based on the 5 different Quality of Time, Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, and Receiving Gifts. I scored highest in Quality of Time, with Physical Touch and Receiving Gifts being my lowest scores. The cool thing is that you can also do this quiz either with or on behalf of your kids. They have separate online quizzes for kids 9-12 and teenagers, as well as guidance for how to work through the concept with younger kids.
We may all be different, but just understanding those differences can take us a long way.
Erika, I love Gary Smalley’s The 5 Love Languages book. It can be a game-changer for many marriages and relationships, especially with children. I found that my young children all loved gifts, but as they grew their individual ways to receive love became more apparent. Tim and I are both highest in quality time also.
Great blog! Thanks for sharing!