Making Your Home Safe and Secure Through A.W.E.

A home filled with generous amounts of affection, warmth, and encouragement (A.W.E.) is a home that will be a safe and secure place to live. At almost every age, children go through stages of testing your authority as well as trying out their judgment and independence. While there’s not much you can do to change how your child tests your limits, you can change the ways you respond to your kids. As a parent, you can develop this sense of affection, warmth, and encouragement with your children by following these three principles:

1. Show Lots of Affection. Kids need a lot of appropriate and loving touch. If they don’t receive it from their parents, as they get older, they may try to find a false sense of love through inappropriate forms of affection. Even if your parents didn’t show lots of affection to you, get past it and be the transitional generation who brings affection to your children.

2. Fill Your Home with Warmth. At times, all relationships experience at least some low-level anger and frustration. Let’s face it, when one imperfect person marries another imperfect person and then they have imperfect children, life is bound to get messy at times. However, homes that thrive are homes where someone rises above the conflict and intentionally creates a warm environment that is inviting and accepting. This doesn’t mean you repress or ignore the issues in your family. But attitude is everything. How you respond to your children and to situations does make a difference.

3. Provide Tons of Encouragement. A home filled with tension, criticism, and negativity shuts down intimacy and closes your child’s spirit. A home filled with affirmation and encouragement opens their spirit and helps them thrive. When parents find reasons to encourage their children daily, kids will have a better self-image and become more confident. The home ought to be the one place your kids feel truly affirmed, safe and secure.