President’s Message


"Love, love, love, love is all you need..." Wise words from the Beatles. Valentine's Day is on the horizon, the time of year where we focus on love for a brief moment. While it is a lovely tradition to pay homage to love and express our feelings to our loved ones on this special day, it is even more essential that we express and demonstrate our love to the important people in our life on a daily basis, especially our children.

The healthiest and happiest children are those that are regularly shown love and know they are loved unconditionally. Children need to know that those closest to them love and believe in them in order for them to develop self esteem and to learn to love and believe in themselves. Duh. Obvious, right? But, let's be honest, sometimes it's easy to take this for granted and to assume our children are aware of our love for them.

We all make tremendous sacrifices for our kids. We work hard to send them to the best schools, enroll them in a multitude of enriching extracurricular activities, expose them to culture, take them on incredible vacations, and buy them amazing gifts. All because we love them.

While all of these wonderful things are done out of love, they do not necessarily provide our children with a sense of being loved. While it may sound cliche, I think the most important thing we can do to assure our children know they are loved is to spend quality time with them. I spend a lot of time with my kids, but not all of this time is quality time. In fact, there are many times that I am distracted doing other things when I am with them. When I stop and put everything else aside and really focus all my attention on them, their faces light up and I know they feel loved.

It goes without saying that our children want to spend time with us. But the way to make this time meaningful is to really focus and pay attention to our kids. Get down to their level, sit on the floor and PLAY with them. Not while you're texting, folding laundry, or multitasking. Listen to what they have to say with interest and do something they want to do. These moments send a strong message to children that they are valued and what they have to say is important to us. These times communicate our love.

Quality time is a powerful emotional communicator of love in all relationships--with our children, our spouses, our friends, and ourselves. Let's not wait until Valentine's Day to show the love!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Lots of love to all!

xoxoxo Nicole

P.S. Speaking of love, I want to send lots of love and gratitude to Marie Levy, Taryn Palatnek and all the committee members and volunteers to made this years Winter Family Festival such a huge success and incredibly fun event!!!!