The difference between I like you and I love you
Recently my daughter has been telling me that people like her. She told me her best friend at daycare liked her. Her teacher liked her. It became more widespread. I was wondering what was going on since I constantly told her I love her. After two and a half years of being called daddy, the novelty has not worn off. I am a middle aged man who never had children and it is so precious to me to hear that word. (Daddy).
The other day I told her that her grandma loved her and I expected a favorable response. No, she insisted. Grandma liked her. Apparently telling her that they liked you was better than telling her they loved her. An interesting development.
I did not want to undermine telling her I loved her because I feel that is very important. Nowadays I tell her I love her and I like her and a big radiant smile spreads across her face.
A father had to learn by leaps and bounds, just like their child. Every week it seem like I have to decipher something she said or did that I am clueless about. Most of the time asking her what she means, asking her to show what she means, and a great deal more exploratory questions leads to futile results. It takes patience and observation.
However, sometimes when I go to her school/daycare, I can ask the teachers if they know what she is talking about. Roughly half the time they do, half they don’t. Usually there is a story involved that the teacher explains to me which makes sense to what my daughter was talking about. Geez, it takes a lot to be a dad! But I would not trade it for the world. Have a great day everyone!
George
November 1st, 2007 at 9:06 am
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November 13th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Interesting post! It’s all about learning from them. By the way, as a new dad, I’ve gotten a ton of wonderful parenting tips from http://www.dadlabs.com/. It’s a terrific recourse; I highly recommend it.