What kind of gift should I get my significant other for Valentine's Day?
Gloria McDonald: This is always a challenge, what is that special gift I should get my
significant other for Valentine's Day. When people ask me this, I say, you
know what, it is really important for you to understand your partner's love
language. Gary Chapman wrote the book 'The Five Love Languages' and I
think this is a phenomenal book and I always go back to that. So, some
people actually getting a physical gift is really, really important to them
and in that case, it is always about not giving them the gift that you want
to give them, but giving them the gift that they would want to receive. So
for some people gifts are really important, but for lots of other people,
receiving an actual physical gift is not the most important thing. So for
some people, words of affirmation are really important to them.
So if that is your partner's love language, find a way to write them a very
special note that tells them, why they are important to you, what you love
about them, what you nick about them, why they are so special, write them
a poem, find a song that you think is particularly appropriate; but it is
words, the words that they need to see, written or hear from you. So for
those people, do that. For other people, their love language is quality time
spent together. So if your partner really enjoys just spending time with
you, then maybe you can give your partner gift certificates to spend. For
example, every Tuesday night together and it is not about necessarily
doing things together and being active, but it is about spending time where
you are one-on-one listening to one another, talking to one another, being
quiet together.
Sometimes it is about sitting next to each other, watching television
together, but spending time together. For other people, physical touch is
their love language. So if your partner is very cuddly, touchy feely and
maybe you are not so much so, this would be a perfect time for you to step
out of your comfort zone and maybe just really spend time with your
partner, giving them a massage, being intimate, really spending a lot of
time in close physical contact for that evening.
For other people, their love language is acts of service. So you may want
to consider what can you do to help your partner out. So maybe you are
going to give them a gift certificate to take their dry-cleaning into the dry-
cleaners for the next five or six weeks or something like that or find
something, maybe something that they needed repaired and you can go get
it repaired for them and surprise them; but it is doing something that is
usually fairly basic, fairly what most people will consider unromantic, but
taking care of something that needs to be done. So doing a service for
them, telling them that you will wash the dishes for them for the next four
weeks or something like that. Give them gift certificates with those things;
do something; it's actually doing something, that's providing a service to
them. So, it does not have to be gift, physical gift, but there are all
different kinds of ways in which you can give a really special unique gift
to your partner if you know them and understand them.
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