June/Summer 2015-Parenting Tip on Love Languages of Children and Teens
With summer fast approaching, I wanted to write about the aspect of boosting children’s self-esteem through their relationships with their parents.Did you know that children have unique love languages?Many parents have heard about the five love languages for couples from the book The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman, but did you also know that kids have their own love languages as well?Children, tweens, and teens gain their sense of self-esteem through parents’ unconditional love.Just like your child has a certain temperament or personality, he or she also has a unique love language.In the article, What Love Has To Do With Raising Confident Kids by Michele Fry you can find out more about how to uncover your child’s love language.You could also have each family member take Gary Chapman’s quiz in order to uncover you and your child’s top love language.You may be surprised at what you find out!The quizzes are intended for the parents, kids ages 9-12 and teens, with tips for parents on how to discover the languages for younger kids ages 5-8.This is a fun interactive activity that could uncover whether your child prefers Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and/or Words of Affirmation.You can also print off this handy chart here.
To boost your parenting power and read more about the 5 Love Languages, here are some summer reading choices:
Nuture Shock:New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
The 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers by Gary Chapman
The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson