Love in Every Language
Non Fiction – Self Help - Parenting
224 pages
Publication Date: May 28th 1995
A continuation of the series sparked by the best-selling The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman,
this book focuses on your children and how to make sure you convey
unconditional feelings of respect, affection and commitment in a way that will
affect them the rest of their lives.
As a proponent of always trying to improve my parenting I started this book
having already bought into the idea of the five love languages and the “love
tank”.
Years ago in the infancy of my
husband and my relationship before we married we both read
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman (I would recommend this
book as a must for any marriage relationship) and frankly it saved our
relationship.
At the time R was
exasperated and I was exhausted trying to fulfill each other’s love needs, but
never actually doing it.
When we read
this book we finally understood each other on a much deeper level and have
spent the last 12 years trying to show each other love in manners that are
meaningful for the other person.
This series once again proved life changing for me. The section on words of affirmation
completely put in perspectives some horrible childhood trauma and sent me into
a sobbing fit. You know now, years
later, I can’t even really remember specific incidents, but I can clearly
remember the soul sucking pain and depression caused by misplaced words. I will do whatever it takes to try and
prevent my children from that kind of pain as I think would most parents.
Twelve years of “touching education” has prepared me for my two-year-old
(trust me when I say this was not the easiest thing for me to learn, but now it
comes more naturally through my years of effort and my husband’s patience), but
I admit I am still working on quality time (my husband and older daughter’s
main language). I think something this
book has definitely reminded me to do is purposeful parenting. Not only to love my children, but to teach my
children how to love others through my example.
I am not raising a child, but someone’s future spouse, future parent,
and about a million other potential roles (trust me a fit thrown by a
one-year-old maybe kind of cute, but at 21 or 31 it is just horrible) and with
that in mind I always have to keep in mind the long term good of my child and not
their or my momentary happiness.
I found it interesting when the authors classified “teaching moments”-
such as learning to do laundry or cooking- under Acts of Service. My goal as a parent has always to prepare my
child to be a mature, responsible member of society who is able to take care of
themselves. I think all of us can relate
to seeing what can happen when kids grow up and weren’t taught how to take care
themselves or be considerate of others, especially when you think of those kids
in college who didn’t know how to clean a toilet, wash a dish or had to go home
for their mom to do their laundry. They
usually were forced by their less than tolerant peers/roommates to under go a huge learning curve.
This book not only fully explains the concepts and provides a means of
identification, but also practical and useful common sense ways of showing love
to your children in all five love languages.
There is also a further reading guide to help continue your education. I personally do not agree with every concept
brought up in this book, but I do agree with the overall theme. I believe if all parents could make their
children feel loved it would cut down on a lot of problems in our society. This will be a continuing mainstay of my
library and periodically be reread to remind me of the kind of parent I want to
be and my children need.
ISBN 1881273652 (ISBN13: 9781881273653)
Weathering the storm with
grace
