Love language hacks for the coronavirus shut down, at least from my vantage point, are an easy stretch. I know this because the hacks have already been created by parents of kids with special needs and disabilities. They've been living with social distancing for years, all the while adapting the love language concepts for all the members in their families.
But that's not all!
Thanks to Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, (available in print, Kindle, and audio formats) hacks created by the 40 families interviewed for the book have been compiled by Dr. Chapman and me, so they are ready to assist caregiving families everywhere.
But wait, there's more!
This post offers a few examples of love language hacks found in Sharing Love Abundantly, and it shows you how to create love language hacks for your family, whether or not you are directly involved in caregiving.
A Few Simple Love Language Hacks
Carry out date night. Date nights are notoriously hard for caregiving parents to arrange, as hard as going out is for the general public with restaurants and theaters closed because of COVID-19. Parents circumvent the caregiving obstacle with a carry out meal eaten by candlelight after the kids go to bed. Cuddle on the sofa afterwards to talk about your day, and boom, you've got date night!
Pizza and movie night. While carry out date night is for you and your honey, pizza and movie night is a hack for the whole family. Step one is to make your own pizza or order it for the whole family. Step two is for everyone to put on pajamas after supper. Step three is to watch a movie appropriate for the entire family. Step four is to put the kids (or the younger kids, depending on their age spread) to bed. Step five is for parents and older kids to stay up late and to watch a second movie appropriate for them, or for the adults if there are no older kids.
Are you getting the idea of love language hacks yet? If so, let's move on.
Photo credit: cottonbro on pexels.com.
How to Create Love Language Hacks for Your Family
Before creating love language hacks for your family, you first need to determine everyone's love language. The easiest way to do it is online at the 5 Love Languages website, which has quizzes for almost every member of your family. If your child has special needs or disabilities, Sharing Love Abundantly has an entire chapter, filled with the collective wisdom of the 40 families mentioned earlier, to guide you through the process.
Once you know everyone's love language, including your own, you can be intentionally about speaking all 5 of them. Here are examples of activities you can do together to ensure that every member of your family will feel loved while you're spending more time than usual indoors together.
Giving and Receiving Gifts: Create greeting cards and crafts and mail them to elderly residents of local assisted living and care facilities that are closed to the public.
Quality Time: Spend a "crafternoon" together making things with stickers, tape, construction paper, crayons, and paint. Use glitter at your own risk!
Words of Affirmation: Designate a blank wall as the family victory wall. When you see someone at your house working hard, being kind, or trying something new, jot it down on a sticky note and put it on the victory wall. Encourage others to do the same thing.
Physical Touch: Put on music and have a family dance party. Try out crazy dance moves, learn to do twirls, or create a line dancing routine. It'll speak somebody's love language, and it's good exercise, too.
Acts of Service: Wash your hands and teach every member of your family how to wash hands for 20 seconds while you bellow your favorite song at top voice. This act of service benefits the people at your house, the people in your town, and all of us!
As you can see love language hacks are simple, inexpensive, and they don't require leaving home. Even better, they are a great way to spread the love while you and your family does its part to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Jolene Philo is the author of the Different Dream series for parents of kids with special needs. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. She's also the creator and host of the Different Dream website. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and at Amazon.
