I have one child who tells me he loves me approximately 42 times per day, every day. He hugs me, rests his head on me, loves when I cuddle him and dance with him. 🥰
My other child does not like to be hugged by me, does not say I Love You. When I say I Love You, she responds with, “Okay.” When I hug her, I ask first; she will shrug her shoulders. She is stiff, uncomfortable. She just wants to describe in great detail the saga of Flash, or tell me again how many rings a planet has. I am bothering her. I can count on one hand the number of times she has hugged me on her own and said the words I Love You in the almost fifteen years since she was born.
When we started learning sign language, I came up with a solution that works for us:
🤟🏻.
She will use the sign for I Love You if I ask her.
I don’t know if she understands why it’s important to me, or if she even actually cares. But it means the world to me.
💗
I am thankful for this.
And so thankful for both my babies.
