How to make your child feel special

I am a first-time mom and like every other first-time mom, I worry about making my children feel loved and special. I want my children to know how much I love them and how special they are to me. Now, don’t get me wrong this doesn’t mean my children won’t know they aren’t perfect. Well, I mean they are let’s be honest. But, I want them to know without a doubt for every second of their lives that they are the biggest blessings I have ever been giving. So, here are my top 7 ways to make my kids feel special.

 

1. Have a Special Song

When I found out I was pregnant with my son my whole life changed. It’s crazy how one minute you think you are stressed out and have a lot of responsibility and then you find out another life is 100% dependent on you. Yea, I never knew what stress or worry was until I had a child.

While it is scary it is also amazing. Like I created this human… whaaat? That’s seriously crazy to me. Every child has a totally different bond with their parents. I wanted my son to know he was special right out the gate. So I wanted him (and eventually all of my kids) to have their own special lullaby that I only sing to them.

With my son, I started singing Dream a Little Dream by Doris Day to him every night while I was pregnant and now I (or my husband) sing it to him every night before he goes to sleep. The very first time he smiled was while I was singing this song to him and it makes my heart so happy that we have our very own special song that is only his and ours.

2. Create an E-Mail Account for Them When they are Born

I created an email address for my son when he was born. And, we will give him the password to the account when he turns 18. My husband and I write him emails periodically when something big happens or when I am up at 2:00 am breastfeeding or just when William does something funny that we want to tell him about. I love to send him pictures and videos. He will have thousands of e-mails from his father and me chronicling his life. Saving all of our favorite memories for him to read and reread through his whole life.

3. Keep a Journal About Their Life

This goes along with the email account. Social media and technology changes so fast it’s crazy so who knows if Gmail will still be a thing in 18 years, I am sure it will because, you know, Google. But, just in case I also have been keeping a journal for my son. Obviously, keeping a journal is much more time consuming and I can’t just attach a video or image so It won’t have as many entries as his email account but it will still be full of memories and love. My mom did this for me growing up and I loved getting it and reading it. It made me feel really special.

I found a really beautiful journal at Barnes & Noble but Amazon has tons of beautiful ones as well!

4. At Their First Birthday Party Ask for Handwritten Letters from Guests

For, my son’s first birthday I asked all of the guests to write him a letter that he will open when he turns 18. I think this will be a gift that makes him feel so special. He will have letters from people who may not be around anymore. He will have letters filled with everyone’s thoughts, hopes, and dreams for him. I wrote a Dr. Seuss inspired poem on the back of his party invitation. Check it out in my post about his party here.

I wrote my son a letter on the front two pages of the Oh the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss book. I will write him a new letter on the next two pages for his birthday next year, and so on. So he will get a book filled with a handwritten letter from me from every year on his birthday. Where he can hear all about who he has grown, what I am seeing in him and how much i love him.

5. Give them a Nickname

I think nicknames given in love are so much fun. Obviously, I am not talking about mean ones but ones that organically come out of a funny moment or a memory. I call my son bug. This started when I kept calling him my little love bug. Which sort of morphed into fuss bug when he had colic. Sometimes it’s bugaboo when I am feeling extra, or bedbug when he just wants to sleep in our bed, or cuddlebug or snug-a-bug when he is all about cuddling. You get the point. I think when a kid has a nickname it helps them feel special. It also helps your mom voice have more effect when you use their first and middle name, not their nickname, bonus!

6. Create Photobooks to Show Their Life in Pictures

I love love love scrapbooks but I’ll be honest I don’t have the time I used to. So I like to create photobooks from Shutterfly. (You can get a free book here). I made one for my son where each page has a month of his life. It has a bunch of pictures from that month and a list of his milestones (height, weight, crawling, walking, talking, etc.) and favorites (food, songs, toys, etc.)

 

7. Give Them Quality One-On-One Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love to have Mommy Son days with my son. It is always a day full of laughs and amazing memories. Lately, our favorite thing to do is go to the zoo. We both love the dolphins so we spend a lot of time watching them and we both love it. My parents used to also take us on special outings with just one of them and one of us. I have a brother and a twin sister and it always made me feel special to get alone time with one of them.

With the age of technology that we are currently in it is so hard to just be present with people. But, part of this one-on-one time should include no distractions. As a blogger, it can be hard to check out of your technology for the day. I love scrolling through Pinterest and manually pinning to grow my monthly viewers. I love coming up with new blog posts, or social media posts, or any of the million other things that come along with blogging.  But, you know what? Nothing is more important than my family. So, when I am having one-on-one time it is a no work zone. What do you do to make your children feel special? Give us a pin if you like these ideas. Pin now read later!