Top 7 Useful Tips for Valentine's Day

1. Make Valentine's Day a Family Affair: Use the Valentine's Day holiday to discuss with your kids the nature of romantic love, and your feelings for their mother. Open up to them, and share your feelings deeply, so they can see you as a complete person, not just a dad. This may seem sappy, but your relationship with your wife is the most important role model for romantic love and partnership for them as they grow up.

2. Planning a Valentine's Day Gift for Mom Can Be Educational: Engage the kids in brainstorming a long list of gifts you might buy or create for mom NOT as a mother, but as a gorgeous woman who loves romance. Estimate the prices and/or the time it will take to make the items. Model the skills of brainstorming, planning, deliberating, sticking to a budget, being creative, and analyzing the impact of a gift. (Suggested by Susan Singh, St. Paul Minnesota).

3. Use Valentine Gifts as a Way to Find Out About Your Kid's Life in School: If the kids are old enough discuss with them what they are thinking about doing for Valentine's Day, if anything, for their friends/sweethearts at school. This will be a good opportunity to get them to open up about issues or problems they might have ("a teachable moment").

4. Once Upon a Time in a Magical Place Called "Before Kids": Bring out photos of the old days when you were dating your wife, and share with the kids stories of how you were as a young boy and man. This kind of sharing will help them open up and learn lessons about love indirectly through modeling.

5. Valentine's Gifts for Important People around You Teaches Graciousness: Invite your children to nominate some other men or women in their lives (cousins, uncles, neighbors, and friends) who they admire and love, and prepare homemade Valentine's Day gifts or cards for them, flattering their looks and gracious manner.

6. A Romantic Song Can Be the Best Valentine's Day Gift for Him or Her: Choose some favorite romantic songs and ask the kids to learn the lyrics and melody so you can all sing it for mom at a special moment.

7. Be Your Own Shakespeare or Jerry Seinfeld on Valentine's Day: Make up a play or skit where the kids play you and your wife when you first met, and when you became engaged. Have your children playact the roles, and improvise new lines, as needed.

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for Your Dad

Valentine's Day is the time to express our feelings for the people we love. It is thus a great occasion to acknowledge our love for our dads-for all that they do for us. Selecting a gift for your dad need not be difficult. If you know your dad well, you can easily select a Valentine's Day gift for him that will be meaningful to him.

Here are some general tips on selecting Valentine's Day gifts for him:

1. Ask your dad what he would like: Items generally advertised as ideal for dads may not necessarily be the best for your dad. Specifically keep in mind your dad's likes and dislikes while looking for a Valentine's Day gift for him. The easiest way would be to ask him. You could do this indirectly by suggesting some gift ideas and asking him what he thinks about them.

2. Learn about his hobbies: What can be better than a Valentine's Day gift for him that has something to do with his hobbies? Whether it is a carpentry tool set or a telescope, you can be sure he will use your gift often.

3. Give him something with you in it: Your dad will love whatever you give him because it is from you. After all, you do mean more to him than anything else. The best Valentine's Day gift for him would be something you have made. It could be a bookrack that you made especially for him or a sweater that you knit for him.

4. Join him in what he likes: Do something with your dad that he will enjoy, whether it is accompanying him to a movie or joining him for a game of chess.

5. Give him a gift certificate: If you are still not sure about the ideal Valentine's Day gift for him, simply gift your dad a gift certificate that will allow him to pick up a gift of his choice. Do offer to go around with him and help him to select it.