The number one need us humans have is to feel important. It’s why we wear the latest trends, drive nice cars and why we talk about our brilliant children. It’s why we work so hard to succeed and it’s also the motive, unfortunately, behind some of the worst crimes. Everyone needs to feel important. Kids are no different. But when you’re pint-sized, and you don’t have much to offer in the area of expertise, yet receive constant correction, constructive though they may be, it’s easy to feel undervalued, underestimated and smaller than you really are.

So what would it take to meet our kids’ biggest need? A simple appeal to logic, really. Consider viewing your kids not as little people who need a lesson in obedience or beings who need to learn as much as possible so they can become important later, but as people with legitimate feelings and who need to, like you and me, feel important now. They want to shine too, and not just on stage, but in the very eyes of the people who mean the most to them on this earth. Those participation trophies don’t mean nearly as much to our kids as our eye contact, and genuine interest in what they have to say and the things they like.

If this sounds like a tall order, rest assured, it isn’t. Making our kids feel important is much simpler than our trophy-happy culture has come to believe. In fact, these five simple New Year’s resolutions we list below won’t cost a single penny, yet will pay big dividends towards your kids’ outlook on their future and their value. Here are five simple New Year’s resolutions worth keeping.

1. Smile at your child when you see him in the morning, when you pick him up after school and before he goes to bed, no matter what has happened during the day. Even if you wake up to them whining or fighting, slap on a smile by thinking of something heartwarming. Smiling doesn’t cost us much of anything, not money, time or energy. Yet something neurological happens when we smile. Once the smiling muscles in our face contract, there is a positive feedback loop that goes back to our brain and reinforces our feeling of joy. Smiling is the gift that keeps giving. So repeat the mantra if it will help: smile morning, noon and night.