For this week’s Happy Marriage Meme I wanted to focus on teaching our children to make their father feel special, especially if you married a good man who is a great dad and deserves it. Men don’t really care about physical gifts. If a man feels his family respects him, appreciates him, and sees how hard he works for them, this is a present for him. It’s important for wives to teach their children to value their father. We are the example- how a man treats his wife and how a woman treats her husband influences how their children view and treat their parents (and future spouse).
1. Show your husband respect so your children respect him
2. Express appreciation to your husband so your children appreciate him
3. Teach your children to show their love and admiration for their dad to him directly (it will make him melt)
It is a rare man who would not value a gift made by his child, so if you have young children, encourage them to make gifts for their dad. My father still has the gifts I made him when I was four.
I love this idea for a Fathers Day gift from a wife:
Best Father’s Day Gift Idea
1. Gather photos of your husband and your child together over the years. Choose photos that show him interacting with your child, such as helping him swim, bbq’ing together, hugging, goofing around, building something, riding a bike, etc.
2. Make or buy a blank scrapbook/photo book with binding. Try to make the book worthy of a beautiful keepsake, with lovely, quality paper, well made, etc.
3. Affix the photos into the book, one to each page. Under each picture write what special thing your husband is doing with your child: “Daddy is teaching me to ride a bicycle”, “Daddy is playing ball with me”, “Daddy is building my doll house”.
4. On the front cover, write “My Daddy Is My Hero” with a photo of your husband and child. On the back cover, place a photo of your entire family.
This is a gift for dad that will one day be a gift for your child. You are teaching your children to love and appreciate their father, and also providing a book of memories. If you have more than one child, make a book for each so they can have their own to read with dad and cherish through the years.
If you don’t have children or aren’t married yet, this week you can follow the weekly Happy Marriage meme rules and make your guy feel special and appreciated:
1. You can not be mean to your spouse, speak harshly to or criticize your spouse, neglect your spouse, roll your eyes at your spouse, or in any way interact negatively with your spouse, from sun up ’til sun down.
2. You must greet your spouse sweetly, with a smile and kisses hello and goodbye, and ask about his or her day. You must listen to their answer before interrupting or talking about yourself.
3. You may make your spouse their favorite dinner, bring them flowers, or take them out to dinner (but not mandatory every week).
Great post, and i love that Father’s Day gift idea.
This is such a wonderful idea! I think my husband would cry as he flipped through the pages.
Such good ideas!
We have a tradition that we started the year our daughter was born. We have a picture taken each Father’s Day with the two of them on the couch. She’s always sitting on Dad’s lap. The couch has changed 3 times, and she sure has grown, but every Father’s Day my husband looks through those photos, and a smile (and sometimes a tear!) comes to his face.
You are so right about modeling what you want your children to learn. If you respect, admire, appreciate him, they will too!
I love that gift idea, Penelope! Thanks so much for sharing.
My kids’ dad is a deadbeat dad but I sure as hell try my best not to talk about him negatively in front of my girls. I go out of my way to make sure they know who he is and to make sure they talk to him on a regular basis. I believe it is worth it. Although I want to smack the crap out of him through the telephone most days.
Thanks for listening.
That sounds good to me. You don’t have to pretend he’s a great guy (since it’s a lie) but there is nothing to be gained from bad mouthing him. They will see what he is on their own as the grow up, and appreciate that you made the best of it.
As a woman being in my second marriage I see how important it is to treat your spouse with much love & respect. Also to share that with your children. Love the gift idea!
Oh that is such a cute idea!!!!! Love it 🙂
What a great post Penelope! My husband and I have always had a bad habit of joking around with each other by saying “I hate you – SOOO much”. We love to throw jabs at each other but we also know when the other person is being sarcastic and just joking around. We had to put a stop to a lot of it as our children got older because I worried that they wouldn’t realize that when we said “I hate you” it was just another way of us saying ” I love you”. I couldn’t expect our kids to read between the lines. I think that being more careful about how we talk to each other in front of our children has been really important in strengthening our family values.
That’s a great Father’s Day gift idea!