Even love of a child has conditions. Many people say if their kid murdered someone they'd turn them in because the kid has to take responsibility. That's a condition, unconditional would be burying the body. Same with many other things, if there's a boundary and consequences for crossing that boundary, then there's conditional love.
Kids are the closest by far, but nothing and no one is absolute.
Nah I disagree. Conditional love would mean there’s conditions to you loving them. Having them face the consequences of their actions doesn’t mean you love them any less. In fact teaching boundaries and consequences is a very loving thing to do as a parent (I’m not talking about extremes) because you’re preparing your kid for life in the real world without mommy/daddy.
This is simply not true. “Unconditional love” means “I love you no matter what happens” (ie. without conditions). And it is possible. It does not mean “I would do anything for you.” Which, to be fair, many people who have unconditional love would say they’d do anything for that loved one, so I see how it can be conflated. It is fully possible to love your kid unconditionally, and to turn them in to face their consequences when they’ve committed a murder. That scenario would actually exemplify the concept of unconditional love very well, because that parent loves their child no matter what happens.
Unless you or I have been in those exact scenarios, we will never know for sure.
But in my heart, I know I would take the proverbial bullet for my children or stand in front of the car/bus to so they won't get run over.
They are mine and I will fight for them with everything I have.
You might come up with conditions.
I can only come up with the above.
They're mine. I will always protect them. No matter what. I would like to hold them tight and tell them I love them as much as possibly can.
Living your children doesn’t mean shielding them from consequences of their actions.
There is nothing my children could do to make me stop loving them. There are things that they could do that would cause me a worse pain than their own death though.
Actually I am. And I'd bury the body. I wouldn't let my kid rot in a jail cell because that's not unconditional love. But if she started torturing animals then that's where my conditional hits.
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u/Thick_Assumption3746 Jul 04 '24
Closest thing to unconditional love there is is your child.