# “You are my baby and I love you. Nothing you are or that you can do will ever change that.” True? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716 "2019-06-18T23:48:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716/21 "2019-06-19T17:29:41Z")
My perspective on this is as follows: I was once engaged to a woman who had a small child. This engagement lasted for over two years, and over that time I grew to genuinely love both of them. (By the definition I gave above.) Why was my engagement stretched out for so long? Because while she had fallen away from her church and was professing atheism, I sensed that that was a temporary condition. And one day she informed me that she had found faith again, and when I didn’t immediately renounce my atheism she declared that I was Satan himself and dumped me on the spot. This is not intended to be a sob story. Why not? Because in the time since then my love or both her and her kid has faded away. I worried about how they were doing for a while, but I don’t anymore. I had no contact with them and over the years it faded away. I don’t wish them ill or anything, but I’m not at all concerned about them either. So love can come and go. Can a _parent’s_ love come and go? Interesting question. My take on it is that parental love is the same type of emotion I felt; they’re just (usually) given a massive infusion of it when they meet the kid. And if the emotion functions the same way then it would indeed be possible for it to erode away to nothing given the right circumstances - though it’s also possible that the massive infusion of it that they started with is too large to be whittled away in a lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716/22 "2019-06-19T19:36:07Z")
I was the one that said it, and posted it originally and I stand by it. Here’s the thing - I love my daughter. Nothing she does will change that. It doesn’t mean I will love everything she does, or anything like that, but yes, ultimately I love my child, and I always will. If she had turned out to be some raving psychopath, I would be super disappointed, and fight hard to make sure she could not/would not hurt anyone, but I would still love her. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716/23 "2019-06-20T07:14:16Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > When my daughter was young, one of her friends did something pretty awful. We were discussing the situation and how my daughter felt about it, when she asked me if I’d still love her if she did anything bad. I told her I’d always love her, but sometimes I worried that she wouldn’t love me anymore if I did something bad. She assured me she would. Awwwwww. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716/24 "2019-06-20T09:52:12Z")
I made it clear to my kid he could take up snowboarding as long as it was with the lid of my coffin. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716/25 "2019-06-20T11:14:33Z")
I cannot imagine anything the lil’wrekker could do that would make me not love her. She’s a hot mess and full of imperfections, but God I love that girl. She’s a bright shining light in my world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-my-baby-and-i-love-you-nothing-you-are-or-that-you-can-do-will-ever-change-that-true/835716.md?page=1)