It is so easy to get caught up and confused by conflicting parenting information and advice. There is so much of it out there.

But if we actually strip away all that confusion and bring it back to basics, there is one key thing our children really need from us – and it’s love. They need our love and affection and attention.

So how can you show your child love? In so many ways. Here are five ways that we can show our love…

Being warm and affection
ate

Being warm and affectionate is one of the more obvious ways we can show our kids love. It could be morning cuddles, snuggling up with a book at night, or randomly saying ‘I love you’.

Doing activities together 


Kids get a lot of value and enjoyment out of doing fun activities with us whether it’s sitting on the floor with a puzzle, finger painting or going for a bike ride. Even if it doesn’t seem fun for us (and there are a million others things that need to get done), getting involved in our child’s fun can be infectious.

Paying attention


One of the more powerful ways to validate our children and hel

p them feel loved is to pay attention to them. They want us to notice when they do something new or fun or funny! If we’re too distracted, we can miss moments to share in their world. We can’t pay undivided attention to our kids every minute of every day (and we wouldn’t really want to because that doesn’t necessarily help our kids). But taking a little time every day helps show our love.

Saying no

I think one of our most important jobs as parents is to help teach our kids what’s appropriate and acceptable behaviour. Kids learn this when we set some boundaries and stick to them. That involves being firm and saying no when we need to, even if our kids don’t like it. To me, that is another very important aspect of loving our children.

Focusing on strengths


I think everyone, including kids, really thrive when we reinforce and encourage their strengths. Sometimes we can be so focused on stamping out the negative behaviour that we forget to highlight and encourage the good behaviour. All of our kids have amazing strengths that we can cultivate and delight in everyday.

But there are probably so many other ways to show our love. How do you show your kids love?

Jodie Benveniste is a psychologist, parenting author and a great believer in the power of intuitive parenting. You can get your free gift ‘Unlocking the secrets of intuitive parenting’ at jodiebenveniste.com