How to Have a Fun Valentine’s Day with Your Child

What is Valentine’s Day for me? Do I feel bad that I won’t have romantic alone time with my husband now that I’m a mom? Surprisingly, no! I had my share of Valentine Day romance: dinners in fancy restaurants, flowers, chocolate, moonlight walks – I had it all.

Now, I am a mom. And I can’t imagine any holiday or special occasion without my son being actively involved. My boy is the ultimate result of my romantic adventures, the beautiful little pumping heart right in the middle of my love story. So isn’t it only natural that I want him to be part of all the Valentine’s Day extravaganza?

Here is what I have planned for us this Valentine Day.

History of Valentine’s Day

Although my boy is only 2.5, he is curious enough to have noticed all the fuss that is going on from early February – the month of LOVE. You can see red roses, heart-shaped balloons, nice chocolate boxes everywhere you go. So of course, I’ve been talking to my son about this beautiful holiday almost every day, leading to Valentine’s Day itself.   

Valentine’s Day is one of the most widely celebrated unofficial holidays. And not only in the States but around the world. There are many versions of how this holiday originated. The most popular one and which couples in love want to believe is about the priest named Valentine. We all know the story how this priest disobeyed the order of the Roman Emperor Claudius II forbidding young men to marry and secretly wed young couples. If you have older children, you might enjoy watching this short documentary on the history of Valentine’s Day.

What is Love?

When I was thinking what I can do to make this day special and fun for us all as a family so many ideas popped into my head that I had a hard time choosing. I’ll have to save most of them for coming years. For now, I chose some simple fun activities appropriate for my son’s young age. If you are a busy mom who needs inspiration and ideas for Valentine’s Day activities, Pinterest is your go-to place. You can check my Valentine’s Day board on Pinterest for more ideas.

Before any other activity, the most important thing I wanted to do with my son is talk about Love. Love has so many levels and ways to be expressed. Isn’t the way our children love the most rightful? That unconditional love, so pure and pervasive. So when growing up how do we eventually lose the right way of loving? Why do we start to expect something in return, become jealous, feel pride, or what is worst give up on love altogether?  

I want my boy to know the true meaning of love. As “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things… Corinthians 13:4-7”

I’ll be writing these biblical phrases on red heart-shaped paper and we’ll be doing a scavenger hunt together.  We’ll be looking for the true love – together!

Heart-Shaped and Red Food

It is so easy to make a heart from everything you eat. That’s what we’ll be practicing together with my boy on Valentine’s Day. I also want him to see lots of red, just because it is just so much fun to have a color themed day. So I was on a quest for fruits and veggies that are red today. It’s all easy with strawberries and raspberries. I’ll also make some heart-shaped cookies with red icing tomorrow.

Things are more difficult with the main dish, but even there I tapped into my creativity… And guess what! I’ll be making chicken hearts for dinner. I know most Americans are not especially fond of inner parts of poultry but I am Armenian – I grew up eating and loving chicken gizzard, heart, liver; and all that delicious stuff.

Balloons

And finally the heart-shaped balloons. That will be our surprise gift for daddy. We bought a dozen of red heart-shaped balloons and hid them in the closet. Early in the morning my boy and I will bring the balloons to our bedroom and have them cover the ceiling. That’s what the daddy will see when he wakes up. The most difficult part was to have my boy be part of the conspiracy and explaining to him that he is not supposed to tell daddy anything about the balloons when he returns from work.

I hope our plan doesn’t blow up like a balloon along the way somewhere and we have a fun morning with my boy getting the most excited, of course. I’ll be posting how things turn out on Instagram, so watch my Instagram stories if you want to see the live show 🙂

That’s all I have planned for our red-themed Valentine’s Day. Whatever you have in mind for tomorrow, whether a romantic alone time with your significant other away from kids or a fun day with kids around – I wish you a day full of LOVE and everything red (wine, lipstick, roses)!

P.S. Whatever fun activity you have planned for Valentine’s Day, I’d love to hear about it. 

Tamara Tsaturyan

Tamara Tsaturyan is the owner and writer of Thriving In Parenting, a website focused on providing simple tips for busy parents — easy and healthy recipes, home decor and organization ideas and all things P A R E N T I N G.