How Should My Partner And I Set A Loving Example For Our Children On Special Occasions Such As Valentine's Day?

February 13, 2009 -- Question: How should my partner and I go about setting a loving example for our children on special occasions such as Valentine's Day?

Answer: The best thing, of course, would be to have one person give the other person a very thoughtful gift and have the person who gets the gift be grateful and appreciative. And it would be neat if someone had been particularly thoughtful, if you said to the kids: "Gosh isn't this amazing, I wonder how dad or I wonder how mom did this. That was so thoughtful. I bet you that she looked at me looking at those Red Sox tickets, which I did three weeks ago, and realized that that would make me really happy. Wasn't that sweet of her?"

So if you do something like that your kids will understand that that's the way you give gifts and that will be great.

Of course, my particular opinion would be that it would be nice to be nice to each other every single day of the year and that if you're only nice to each others on birthdays and anniversaries, that wouldn't make up for a lifetime of sniping or ignoring each other. So I think everyday things are every bit as important as how you deal with special occasions.

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