Do you say I Love You???

Hi!

I was thinking thismorning about wether i say "I love you" enough to my children. Affection and I love you's were something that was rarely said or shown in my family so i make a concious effort to say it as much as i can to my kids.

I say it to both the girls when i go to tuck the them in at night. They are usually both asleep by now as Brent puts Briley down while i am BF Colby. I like to think that they can hear me in their dreams. :) I do say it at other times and i am pretty sure Briley understands what i mean.

So, Do you say I love you??? How often???

I say "i love you" to my older DD when she goes to bed, when she goes to school, if shes upset or if we've been on the phone its the last thing we say to each other (She's 13, i think if i did it anymore it would just be "uncool"!!).
To Emily im always saying "mummy loves you soooooo much!" this i do all day - just so she's sure!! lol.;)

im pretty sure i say 'mummy loves you' a couple of times a day, to each of my girls. Although its not always the words, actions can mean as much too. i often say "Can mummy have a kiss/cuddle?".......
So to sum it all up, i say 'i love you' a couple of times a day - but find doing a puzzle with them, reading them a book, or getting them to help me fold the washing and praising them is often remembered more.........

I suppose children can never get enough "I love you"'s, but I think if they know they are loved then you are fine :)
Looking back to my childhood I honestly cannot remember being told "I love you" by my parents, which is sad because now i have trouble saying it to my partner (I have no trouble with my children tho) and I think this is where it has stemmed from. I can also say i could have been showed a lot more love from them and it would have helped with my confidence.

I tell my children I love them before bed and when they go anywhere. DP is always telling them he loves them. He has them trained, he says, 'how much does Daddy love you' and they reply, 'lots and lots'. Very cute :)

Sounds like you are doing a great job :)

I say 'I love you' to Charlie many times in the course of a day, and used to do the same to my older kids when they were younger. Now they're older, we say it to each other when we say goodbye, to finish off a conversation on the phone, when they want something from me (Lol!) and when they're hurt or sick.

Actions count for a lot when they're younger, but when they're older, a cuddle is not often welcomed. :) DS2 does give me a kiss before he heads off to school and when he gets back, but would be mortified if his friends ever witnessed it. DD and DS1 are beyond the point of being embarrassed and kiss me all the time.

ETA Tanya you bring up a great point. My parent have never said 'i love you' to me. Maybe along the lines of 'because we love you' but that's about as direct as they've ever been. But I used to stay with my mum's extended family on weekends and holidays and they were very tactile and very loving, with 'I love you's and kisses and cuddles all over the place. I think it's why, of my siblings, I am the tactile one who has no problems showering my kids and my DH with love. My sister and borthers are not touchy feely at all. I hope my kids grow up to be loving tactile adults.

I say "love mummy" when I bring Pip to me for a kiss (which at this point is a bite of my nose) and "love pip" when I kiss him on the cheeks.

Only all day long :D I'll usually pick Annika up, give her a kiss, and say I love you. Affection wasn't something that was shown towards me very often as a child, so I like Annika to know how I feel about her.

All the time here too - mostly just because ;)

James and I say it to each other all the time. He even says it out of the blue preceded by, "you're beautiful". Big mooshy moosh moosh he is.

I say it about a million times a day lol.
My boys are lucky to get through an hour without being grabbed for a huggle.
Yasin used to say "lubeees" when he couldn't sat I love you properly - it was so cute. Now he says "you sweet mama". It makes mr feel all warm and fuzzy.
If Imran needs a cuddle he comes over and says 'ugeees'.
I don't remember my parents saying it much as a child but I always knew they did so they must have.
All my family say it after phone calls.

I say it alot everyday, everytime DD goes down for a nap, when i watch her playing and seeing her so happy is when i go give her a big kiss and cuddle and say "mummy loves u"

I know with Matilda I would say it when she was asleep all the time & had to start making an effort to say it more often. When she was a baby she's scream herself to sleep all the time, either in my arms or in the cot & I found it really hard to say "I love you" through the screams. Now DH & I say it everytime we leave the girls, on the phone and just because. With Matilda now she will occasionally run up to me & say "I love you too mummy" which has brought tears to my eyes as she is saying it before me. Jovie I say "I love you" everytime she has a breastfeed & when we are having a cuddle.

Because I didn't hear it unless there was a reason at home I always try to say it for as many things as I can and remind myself to say it more whenever.

I say it all the time, but it is a definate at the nightly routine for bed. All my children were read the book " How much do I love you?" and we always say to each other " I love you to the moon and back" ....The book is nearly in tatters now!!!

My parents never said it to us, or only very rarely.... and I remember questioning as a child on many occasions whether they did actually love me.

I say it to Aidyn many times a day, always with a cuddle and a kiss.... and its beautiful to hear him say it back :)

I tell DD I love her all the time - whenever she goes down for a nap, gets up, has a cuddle, is playing, is breathing!! DH and I tell each other we love each other all the time too. I don't think you can ever say it enough, and I don't think saying it all the time lessens its meaning. DH and I both know how much we are loved by the other through actions, but its still nice to hear and I want my daughter to grow up feeling the same way. I've lost too many people unexpectedly in my life to not take every opportunity I can to tell those I love how much they mean to me. When my former fiance died a few years ago it meant a lot to me that the last words we said to each other were "I love you".

I'm another that says it lots. Definate times I say it are when she goes to bed, when she is hurt or unsettled, or just because! I also like to tell her I'm proud of her - something I've never heard my parents say.

I say it all the time too :D... many many times a day ;)

I say it quite a few times each day too, and try to say it in different contexts, so it doesn't just become the "ending to a sentence or a behaviour" if you know what I mean. Sometimes I'll sit one of them down over a snack and look them in the eyes and tell them everything about them that I'm proud of and then tell them they're very special and unique and that I love them very much. Both of my kids will randomly come up to me or DH and say, "I love you sooooooo much." (usually with an accompanying huggle, as DD calls it, or a love slap from DS).

Awww we are such greats mums are'nt we! It is kinda sad to see how many of us were'nt told it when we were younger though. Good too see the times are a changing. :D

I say a lot of "mummy loves you's". Briley get a little embarrased when i try and get her to say I love you too Colby or too me. :rolleyes:

I say it everynight when I go check DS1 before I head off to bed and when one off us heads out. Hugs and kisses I ask for throughout the day but wether I get them or not.

My parents often say it but DH says he has never heard his parents say it which i think is sad.

I;m an all day lover too, hehe. Everytime I pick DD up I say it! I kiss and hug her all the time too, I always make sure I tell DH too before he goes to work if I see him and every night when we go to bed. And lots of times in between, though if we don't see each other much, I make sure I tell him every day. I also tell my mum and brothers when I talk to them on the phone. It is something that should not be left unsaid :)

I can only remember my Dad ever telling me he loved me twice. BUT for some reason I just KNEW that he did, thank goodness.

My Mum was far more verbose about her "I love you's" when we were children, but these days she never says it?

With DH and I and Olivia & Charlie & Lexie......it gets says a lot. DH & I often do the "No, but I love YOU more" routine........

Or "I love you"
"I love you too"
"I love you three"........and so on and so on!

Or a la Nut Brown Hare "I love you to the moon and back" to which Olivia replies" But I love you to Granny's house and back" (which is apparently further, as you can see the moon, but you can't see Granny's house from our place!)

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Sometimes I'll sit one of them down over a snack and look them in the eyes and tell them everything about them that I'm proud of and then tell them they're very special and unique and that I love them very much

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Christine, I do this at bedtime with them. Olivia asks me, when she is tired and snuggly "Tell me all the things you love, Mummy". I love that she knows she can ask, and I love that this affirmation is what sends her into the land of nod.........

We also have a special code too......If I blow a little kiss (no hands) with a little wink, then Olivia knows that "mummy loves me and is proud of me".......we use it as a "secret" code for when we are out and about, especially if she is being really good and well behaved.........

That said, I overhead a conversation the other day between DH & Olivia........"Guess what Daddy? Mummy loves me EVEN if I am naughty! And even when Charlie throws food on the floor at lunchtime, she STILL loves him! And when Lexie stands up in the bath and Mummy gets cranky, she even still loves Lexie then!"

Bless.........

Ohhhh Lucy that made me all warm and fuzzy.....

Lucy, you have painted a beautiful picture of your home, and the way your DH and you have raised your children. Thankyou.

I hope only that I can relate such a story in a few years!

I am sooooo emotional when it comes to my kids!
Everytime they do something cute i say i love you. I find myself saying it all day!
There is nothing more precious then a child saying 'I love you mummy' out off the blue.

I am not a mum yet but i do remember both my parents saying it alot to us as youngsters.

It was met with a response from me saying "i love you too 150 times and just a hundred". I still smile now when i think of it because i loved them so much ( and still do ) and 100 and 150 were the biggest numbers I knew at the time and it was the absolute most I could love them. lol

I'm actually a little embarressed posting this as i have never told anyone else about it before but i did post it because i think that saying I Love You to your children is the most precious thing ever! Keep it up xo

Lucy - that is just absolutely beautiful... warms my heart!

No need to be embarrassed MrsB26, I think its very sweet! :)

All the time here, everytime I pick her up etc. I also give her a kiss each time after saying it!!

All the time. I say it, sing it, giggle it into his tummy... I just adore my little man and can't tell him enough! He gets loads of kisses too and he loves giving kisses back.

The best bit, though, is when he runs up and kisses my knee before charging off again (OK, I have to be stood near one of his cruise-aides) or looks at me and says "luv-oo". He's so perfect!

DS is also told he's strong, clever, funny, special, handsome... you just can't get enough compliments as a baby or young child. You need a solid foundation of feel-good to get through life.

I'm a lover too :)
Saying I love you in our house is like breathing. I will tell DH everytime he comes in the house and just before we go to sleep. He once asked me if I mean it, if I say it that much (he was not raised like that) I told him SURE!, I would not say something like that if I did not mean it! I am getting him to say it lots too - and I know he means it. I will tell dd each and every chance I get that she is pretty and special and smart and loved and funny and special. Kissing and hugging and cuddels all round.
I was raised in a very close, affectionate house. We would kiss everytime we go out of the house - both parents and siblings (you never know if you are coming back, kwim??) So I try to incorporate that in my family too. I personally think there is something seriously wrong if you can't tell your child that you love him/her.
I have a rhyme for dd at night - Mommy loves you *kiss* Daddy loves you *kiss* Sweet dreams my angel *kiss* - just as she drifts off, like a subliminal (sp) message - YES I am brainwashing my child!! :cryinglaugh:
And my mom and I have "secret" sign too - holding up three fingers (like you teach a three year old to show ppl how old he is) that means I LOVE U. So as I drive off at her house, I would wave and show her our sign - making it just that tad bit more special.

hi guys,
my mum and dad never said they loved me or that they were proud of me,
my mum and dad split when i was little and my dad now lives in adelaide,
and now he says its my fault we never kept in touch, but i was 5 yrs old,
anyway, my mum never said it iether, but she did show it, we had everythig we wanted , and thats how she showed it,
me im the opposite, i tell my kids all the time, even tho' they are 12 and 16,
and they tell me,
my youngest son was asked to write a short essay about why his best friend was his best friend, and he wrote about me!!!
well that essay went all round the staff room
and his teacher was sooo moved she phoned me up to tell me about it,
mandxxx

That's lovely that your son considers you a best friend Mand! Well done!

My parents weren't big 'I love you'-ers, but me and my sis have NEVER doubted their love for us! It might have been said, but I don't remember it. They are both from families of 7 kids, perhaps that's a factor, it might make them very practical. And I think I never doubted their love because of that practicality, they spent time with us, hanging out, chatting, playing, laughing.
It's nice to hear 'I love you', and we say it these days, but as a kid, their words didn't matter to us, their actions spoke the loudest.
Hopefully this might be an encouragement to those who don't find it easy to verbalise their feelings - it's nice to hear, but I don't remember hearing it and know without a doubt that my parents did (and still do) completely adore me! :D

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Only a billion times a day :) I don't remember my parents every saying "I love you" unless it was before bed. Paris says it all the time too. We used to go through a phase of saying "I love you more than xyz" (an inanimate object, Paris used to say Lollies & Chocolate). We also read the "Guess how much I love you" Book :)

My family was the same when i was growing up, no-one ever said I love you, and they still don't! I tried saying it to every member of my family once and they all freaked out and thought I was dying or something. :rolleyes:

So now that I have my DD I tell her so heaps of times everyday! It feels so good telling her even though she can't understand me, i'm sure she knows. DP and I tell each other I love you literally 50+ times a day. :D

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My kids, being very open with love have said "I love you so much Poppa" and he's replied with "I love you too". It's amazing what a child can do.

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That has really touched my heart.......thank you for sharing Rolymogs......xx

Yesterday I was thinking of this thread & I said "Matilda, I love you" and she ran over to me & threw her arms around my neck & gave me a huge slobbery kiss "love you Mummy" it brought tears to my eyes & i said "I don't tell you enough, but I want you to know I will try to tell more how much I love you & how special you are" she said "can I have a lollie now?" :rolleyes:

LOL Christy........that's little girls for you........they are not daft are they?!

I just cant help kissing my DS and saying I love you. In my family we didnt really say it much but I think I got a lot of practice with DH and my doggie who also gets I love you a thousand times a day. DS gives me big hugs all of the time and last night we were saying goodbye to a friend. It will be a long time till we see her again and she was crying. DS studied her face and put his arms out for a big bear hug and then didnt want to let her go even though usually he would jump back into my arms. So it seems all of this affection is rubbing off. It brought tears to my eyes.

Christy....

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she said "can I have a lollie now?"

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LOL!!!! Hilarious!