Showing Affection to Your Children

As a father of 4 kids (soon to be 5 next month), I have picked up on some interesting tidbits about showing affection and how it effects our kids. Most of you will probably be able to relate but I learned a few things along the way.

There are certain ways I express my affection towards my kids, and it is different sometimes for each of them. For instance, my only son keeps a buzzed head. To show my affection sometimes I rub the top of his head. With my daughters I may give them a quick kiss on the forehead or put my nose up against theirs in a silly fashion. There may be certain things I say to them. For my daughters I may say “sweetie” or “pumpkin”, for instance. As for my son, I usually refrain from the word “sweetie”, but may say “buddie”.

But these are some simple ways of showing my appreciation at the time and giving them a little affection.

How do I know they are getting the message? An easy way to see what is important to your own children is to let them play with a baby doll. Then watch them as they play. When your child shows affection towards the doll pay attention to what they say, and what they do. If they call the baby “sweetie” and gently kiss it on the forehead then you know that it is very important to your own child when you do this. If your son rubs the baby’s head just like you do to him, then keep it up. Next time make sure to rub your son’s buzzed head when you want to show a little affection.

It is amazing what some of the simplest things can do.

So what do you call your son or daughter? Pumpkin? Schnookums? Sweatheart? Bud? What other ways do you show affection to your own kids?