Kathy Slattengren

Gifts That Are Remembered



Posted: Tuesday, November 11, 2008

by Kathy Slattengren
Priceless Parenting

During a parenting seminar, parents were asked to think back to our own childhoods and remember someone who really loved us.  The leader then asked us what we remembered about how that person showed us their love. 

We reported many fond memories including: She pointed out that not a single one of our responses involved material gifts like iPods, Legos, scooters or televisions.  What will our children remember when they look back at their childhood?  Probably the same type of things we remember ... the special times spent together. 
 
We communicate our love to our children when we choose to spend time with them.  It's the things we do together with our children that they will remember the rest of their lives.  Long after they've forgotten the very cool toy we bought for their birthday, they will remember the afternoons we spent playing catch in the backyard or baking cookies together.
 
Challenge yourself to carve out time to do something special with your children.  You may want to talk to them about what they would really like to do or you could surprise them.  Consider writing this activity on the calendar so that everyone remembers it and something else doesn't accidentally get scheduled.  Remember the gifts that will last the longest are the ones where you spend special time together. 

Kathy Slattengren is an internationally recognized parenting educator and founder of Priceless Parenting, http://www.PricelessParenting.com. Priceless Parenting provides an online parenting class, parenting presentations and parent coaching.

While raising her own two children, she learned many wonderful parenting techniques from classes, seminars and books. Through studying research, she discovered a universal body of knowledge about how effective parents do their job. Her Masters of Education degree from the University of Washington combined with her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Computer Science from the University of Minnesota has enabled her to pull together parenting research into a course that is easy to understand and apply.

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