Taking advantage of the arrival of the day known as the day of love, Valentine’s Day, the perfect occasion is approaching to ask children about love. If you are wondering how to explain to your child what love is, this is the post that will give you the keys to achieve it.

Although the best way to explain love to children is to lead by example and be loving and kind to those around us, we can also talk about it as if it were something foreign to us, but that is worth understanding and putting into practice.
Explaining love to children doesn’t mean sitting on the couch and talking to them for two hours about an idea, a feeling, or an abstract thought. An excellent way to explain what love is is to show how good it is to help the other, share a toy, express what you feel and understand the other.
Hand in hand with love is respect. Respecting others means accepting them as they are. Avoid using derogatory comments such as “you are useless” as this can make the child think that it is not worth defending himself or that the right thing to do is to treat others badly. Being affectionate and respectful not only with the child but with your partner, family and friends is a good way to teach him what love is.
So, the keys to explaining love are:

1. Keep it simple: Scott Carroll, a children’s psychiatrist and physician says, “The key is to use concrete words and examples that they can understand and recognize that the model of love is how a person treats them. Love is when you really care about someone or something.”
2. Putting words into action: Ken Dolan, a family therapist, recommends explaining love through gestures like a hug, for example: “Give your child a big hug and ask: How do you feel right now? They may say that happiness or feeling good are the feelings we have when we feel loved and when we love others. Love is dedication and wanting the other person to feel good and happy.”
3. Show them that love doesn’t “wear out.” Elisabeth Stitt recommends: “An excellent exercise to explain that love has no limits is to use the analogy of a candle flame, which shines brightly. Even after it has been used to light another candle, and another, and another, and another.”
4. Explain it through pets. To love is to care for others, to love is to help the most vulnerable beings. Taking care of him, feeding him, taking him for a walk are gestures of love.
5. Letting it flow. Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Will Eno explains that children already know what love is, and when they really feel it, they will know they are experiencing it.
   We can explain love in many ways. With words, gestures, actions. But love, that feeling that goes through actions and replicates them. Your child will know what love is because he is nourished by it every day. In the meantime, you will be there to explain one of life’s most beautiful mysteries.