The Most Precious Gifts for Valentine’s Day

Though flowers and candy are nice, the best gifts give what your partner and your children want most: you.  Try these gift ideas this Valentine’s Day.

1. Your Time

   • Schedule a date with your partner or child for each month of the coming year.

   • Choose a half hour every week to spend just with your love or your child.

   • Commit specific blocks of time to a fun project you’ll do together, such as learning to ice skate, building something together, or writing a family song.

1. Your Undivided Attention

   • Declare yourself screen free, chore free and available for one hour per week. He/she/they can choose how to use the time.

   • Agree to listen each night at bedtime to whatever he/she/they wants to say.

   • Agree to turn off the radio in the car or the tv in the house at a specific time.

1. The Benefit of the Doubt*

   • Take that thing that you think was done just to make you angry, and let it be in the past. Shift your focus to the future.

   • Change your core belief to an assumption that they are always doing their best, and don’t plan to hurt you.

1. Gratitude

   • Make a list of all the things you are thankful for in your relationship/family.

   • Thank your partner or child daily for at least one thing they do that day. Keep it up for a month.

1. A Do Over*

   • Take an argument you’ve had again and again, and have the same conversation with an unwavering commitment to kindness and empathy.

   • Take something that has been a source of frustration between you, and let your partner or child know you’ve let it go. Start over with a clean slate, and never bring it up again.

   • Give your children an eraser (or several) to erase future mistakes as they happen and get an instant clean slate of their own.

1. Forgiveness

   • See this post by Rachel Sorra LCSW-C detailing steps you might take toward forgiving someone you love.

*These do not apply to instances of abuse.   If you believe your partner is harming or controlling you intentionally, it’s time to get help.   Try the national Domestic Violence hotline or give us a call for help deciding on next steps.