Saying " I LOVE YOU"

Saying
"I Love You"

Readers share the everyday ways their families say
"I love you."

Shown left: For Shoshana Marchand (a Wondertime contributing editor) and her grandmother, Bubbie, butterscotch candies meant love.


My 5-year-old, Zack, has a freckle on the back of his left earlobe. We call it his secret freckle. When we're saying good-bye we'll each touch a finger to the back of our left earlobe.

— Amanda Molnar, Virginia

I told my 4-year-old twins that every time they see a heart on anything to stop and think really loud in their head, "My mom loves me."

— Kim Gray, Indiana

When my son Nick was a baby, I would say "I love you" and I would tap his nose with my finger for each word. Soon he was tapping my nose three times with his little finger.

— Missy Kaletka, Missouri

I use a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the sandwiches I put in their lunch boxes. I don't do it every day — I surprise them periodically.

— Stephanie Jenkins, Louisiana

At age 2, my daughter became really finicky about who she would say "I love you" to. My sister-in-law taught her to say s'agapo, which means "I love you" in Greek. Now that she's almost 4, she and her dad still say it to each other.

— Melissa Warner, California

My oldest son and I have used the sign language symbol for "I love you" for a long time, but when my foster son joined our family, he adapted the sign into just an upraised pointer finger.

— Tricia Copeland, Illinois

I've attached a pin — a silver hand making the sign for "I love you" in sign language — to each of my children's backpacks.

— Melissa Martin, Indiana

When I drop my daughters off at school, I kiss the backs of their hands and leave a lipstick reminder that I'm thinking of them all day.

— Shayne McCaslin, Arizona

When my daughter, Ryanne, was 2, we created a code — three hand squeezes stood for "I love you."

— Joy Carr, New York

I give my two daughters big, funny, drawn-out-sounding kisses. We do it over and over again, shaking our heads and laughing hysterically.

— Angela Gubala, Michigan

We try and outdo each other with ways of measuring our love for one another. "I love you to the moon and back four times" gets an "I love you to Grandma's house and back ten times" in return.

— Kari Mann, California

I reach my hand behind me as I drive and hold someone's hand. A few times over the years I have had three or four hands holding mine.

— Karin Togafau, Oregon

My husband fills a box with imaginary hugs and kisses before he leaves on business trips. Whenever the children need one, they carefully open the box and take out a kiss or hug.

— Jen Ray, Massachusetts

We read The Kissing Hand, in which a raccoon gives her son a kiss on the palm of his hand and wraps his fingers around it so he can keep the kiss with him. The best days are when I get a "kissing hand" from my girls.

— Stacey Rose, Kentucky