Looking to keep love in the air? It’s easy! Just incorporate these little ways to show love all year long into your routine. They work to show love to both partners and kids!
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you’re loving your people well today on this day dedicated to love. But even though I highly recommend celebrating love on Valentine’s Day, it doesn’t have to end today!
Keep the love going all year long but make it manageable by sticking to little ways to show love. I’m not talking about big gestures or fancy gifts every day. These take time, effort, and money that we don’t have to spend every day. Instead, focus on little ways to show love that you can keep up year-round.
Your little love habits don’t need to be limited to your partner, either. You can adopt little ways to show love to both your partner and your kids. How can you keep the love going all year long, you ask? I’ve got 10 little ways to show love in your daily life, and I’ll show you how you can use them on your partner and on your kids!
Little Ways to Show Love
Say I love you
We are getting the obvious of the little ways to show love out of the way first. It’s simple to say I love multiple times a day to the people you love. If you struggle with expressing your love verbally, turn it into a routine. Pick a time and tell your partner and/or kids that you love them at that same time every day. It’s easiest to attach it to something that happens at the same time every day, like wake up or bedtime.
Touch
If saying I love you is the easiest of the little ways to show love, touch is the most powerful. You can convey so much in a simple touch. Touch your loved ones, folks.
Partner
Especially when you’re in the thick of raising little kids, it’s easy to forget to touch your partner on a regular basis. But simple touches throughout the day are a great way to stay connected, physically and emotionally, to your partner. Hold hands, hug, touch a shoulder as you pass him at the dinner table on your way to get your kids their 4th serving of blueberries. Look for ways to touch your partner whenever you can.
Kids
I can feel my kids relax when I touch them, so I try to touch them as often as possible. Hugs and kisses, of course, but also hair ruffles and nose boops too.
Small compliments
Everyone loves to hear compliments about themselves, even if they don’t take compliments super well. Admit it, it’s nice to hear that someone who is important to you sees the good in you.
Partner
Resist the urge to rely on physical compliments only when you are complimenting your partner. Compliment them on how they loaded the dishwasher or how they dealt with your kids fighting for the 1500th time that day.
Kids
Kids love to hear compliments from their parents. You’re setting your kids up to have positive self-worth if you instill in them at a young age that they have good qualities that are worth talking about.
Gratitude
It’s hard to say thank you sometimes. But expressing thanks and gratitude for your loved ones is such a great way to keep the love flowing all year long.
Partner
I find that it’s hardest sometimes to say thank you to my partner. We are usually going 1,000 miles a minute dealing with work and kids and life in general, so it’s hard to stop that momentum to say how grateful I am for him. But it’s so important to force yourself to do that. If your partner takes the kids so you can make dinner, express gratitude. If he takes out the stinking trash, say thank you. I know you’re grateful for your partner, just make sure he knows too.
Kids
Look, I get it. When your kids are fighting or whining or running through the aisles of Home Depot like feral animals, it’s hard to feel grateful for your kids. But I know you are grateful for them. They’re your whole life. So, tell them. Thank them for being helpful or having good behavior. Explain to them how grateful you are for their very existence and how happy you are to be their mom. This gratitude might just get you through the tough moments too.
Help
Being helpful might not come to mind immediately when you think of little ways to show love, but don’t knock it. Offering help to your people when they need it is a great way to demonstrate your love. You could be doing 700 other things, but instead you chose to help. That’s love, friends.
Partner
Look around at what’s on your partner’s plate. Does he normally cook dinner? Offer to chop the veggies for him. Is he in charge of trash and recycling? Break down those 17 Amazon boxes that have arrived at your doorstep this week that are piled in the basement corner. Even small acts of service like this are major demonstrations of love.
Kids
I know what you’re thinking. Your whole life is helping your kids. And, to be fair, you’re right. But that doesn’t mean your help isn’t love. You’re showing love when you help them with their homework, get them a snack, or wipe their butts. So much love happening in my house with a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old.
Listen
Along the same lines as helping to show love, listening might also not top your list of little ways to show love. But don’t underestimate the power of a sympathetic ear. This is especially true if you have loved ones who are female. I don’t know about you, but I and the women I know and love sometimes just need to talk and have someone actively listen to us. We don’t necessarily need someone to solve our problems or fix anything. Sometimes just the simple act of listening can be the most loving thing you can do.
Partner
The key to showing love to your partner by listening is to actively listen. What does this mean? Carnegie Mellon University summarizes active listening as listening to understand rather than just to hear. This is a powerful difference. So, next time your partner needs to talk, strive to actively listen to him or her. Focus on what he or she is saying, demonstrate concern, don’t interrupt (I’m definitely guilty of this one), and ask open-ended questions to make sure your partner has no barriers to communication. It’s hard, but practice makes perfect. Start practicing!
Kids
Although it’s important to actively listen to your kids too, I find that this boils down to one thing for me as a mom. I need to remove the distractions and focus only on the kids. That means not listening to them as I make dinner or fold laundry, putting my phone away, and engaging only with what my kids are telling me. Again, it’s hard to do when you feel pulled in so many directions, but I promise it’s one of the best ways to show your kids that you love them.
Tiny gifts
If your love language is receiving gifts, you’re probably amazing at showing your love by giving gifts to those you love. This is not my love language (not even a little bit), so I struggle sometimes to remember that people feel loved when they receive gifts. But the old and the young love to receive gifts. It signals to them that you love them and you thought about them. Even if their love language isn’t receiving gifts, they still appreciate it.
Partner
Now, I’m not suggesting that you need to buy your partner fancy jewelry on a regular basis. Heavens no! Just bring them something that you buy or make that makes them feel your love. In my relationship, it’s onion dip. My husband loves onion dip, but I don’t buy it all the time because I don’t want him to die young. So when I am walking through the aisles of the grocery store and I think of him, I pick up a tub for him (and of course, Ruffles chips to go with it). When he sees it sitting on the shelf in the fridge, he knows I love him.
Kids
Gifts for kids don’t need to be over-the-top either. Heck, my kid gets a kick out of a free pen my husband brings home from work and my daughter is tickled pink when I give her junk mail. These count as little ways to show love!
Notes
If you can’t be with your loved ones all day every day, leaving them notes is a great way to show them love!
Partner
Stash a note in your partner’s work bag or stick a post-it to his or her computer monitor. The message can be anything you want it to be (minus maybe pick up eggs at the grocery store), but be sure to sign off with love.
Kids
My partner works a weird schedule. About half of the days of each week he’s not home to see the kids. Most of the time, this is just normal for the kids and they don’t bat an eyelash. Other times, they struggle with it, especially if he isn’t home for a few days. We have learned, though, that a well-placed note can fend off a meltdown of epic proportions. You don’t have to work a weird schedule to adopt this same strategy. Leave a note in your kid’s jacket pocket or lunchbox. They’ll know you have been thinking about them and they’ll feel loved even when they aren’t with you.
Food
My love language is food. I’ve always cooked and baked for people to show my love. I mean, who doesn’t like food? Cook your people their favorite foods and they’ll know you love them. Just make sure you also rotate in some nutrition too.
In lieu of providing partner- and kid-specific tips for using food to show your love, I thought I would share some of my family’s favorite meals. Just in case you need some inspiration.
Lasagna Roll-ups
Don’t sleep on these lasagna roll-ups. The last time I made them, my kids had three helpings each. They had no doubt in their minds that their mom loved them that night.
Tomato Soup
I’ve mentioned a few times that my kids are obsessed with tomato soup. This is me mentioning it again. Sure, you can show your family love by opening a can of tomato soup, but if you really want to knock it out of the park, make it homemade. My family’s current favorite is this tomato orzo soup.
Marry Me chicken
I’ve been having a tough time getting my older child to eat chicken for a while now. I don’t know what chicken did to him, but it’s a thing. I’m still exposing him to chicken often, in the hopes that he will change his mind about it. Usually, that just results in late night slices of cheese because he didn’t eat dinner, but occasionally, I find a chicken recipe he will eat. This Marry Me chicken is currently his favorite (only?) way to eat chicken. Good thing the rest of us love it too!
Pizza
Pizza is a fan favorite in my house, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s similarly adored in your house too. If you need pizza topping inspiration, I compiled all of my family’s favorite topping combinations here.
Chili
I’ve mentioned before that my husband isn’t too keen on beans, so that used to make chili difficult. But I found this bean-less turkey sweet potato chili, and chili is difficult no more! We all gobble up this chili!
Praise
Who doesn’t love to receive praise for a job well done? That’s right, no one. So dole out the praise to your loved ones when they deserve it – little praise can be little ways to show love!
Partner
Find any excuse to praise your partner. Grown-ups don’t receive praise very often, but they often deserve it. Did he or she do something great at work? Praise! Did he or she reconfigure the car seats for your constantly growing kids? Praise! Find little ways to show love by praising the little wins your partner racks up daily.
Kids
Kids need praise regularly, and they feel really loved when they receive it. We are currently in the throes of learning to read with the big one and potty training with the little one, so the praise is flowing around here. But it doesn’t have to be progress toward major milestones to be worthy of praise. Anything good your kid is doing (listening, behaving, etc.) is a good excuse to praise.
Other posts
Looking for other tips to incorporate into your daily life? Check out these posts for help:
I hope you can incorporate these little ways to show love into your daily life to keep the love going all year long. What are your favorite ways to show the people in your life that you love them? Share below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.