This was the case for Stow, Ohio reader Cindy Bagocius. Not only did she want her kids to get along better. She needed a new perspective on her children’s behavior.

Her solution was this. A few weeks before Valentine’s Day, she cut out lots of hearts from construction paper. She also labeled a lunch bag with each child’s name.

She began to look for heartfelt things her kids did—actions that were funny, cute, endearing, unselfish, thoughtful or kind.

Each time she saw one of these things, she secretly wrote it on a heart. Then she put the heart in the child’s bag.

She had fun filling up the bags. On Valentine’s Day, she gave them to her children and explained what she had done.

Their eyes filled with wonder as they dumped their bags and read their hearts.

They felt loved. They also had a new appreciation of the kind of behavior their mother wanted.

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