Ever find yourself saying “I love you” and getting an unfulfilling, automated “love you too” or – they just say nothing.

Let’s try something new!

I’ve been experimenting with a twist on how we express love to our sons, and it’s fascinating.

Here’s the scoop:

The other night, instead of saying “I love you” when I was saying goodbye to my son, I said, “Bye, honey, I respect you.”

He was like, “wait…what?” but happy.

So, I’ve been replacing “I love you” with “I respect you.” Not always, but a lot. And then one night, my son responded with, “I respect you too.” It felt amazing.