I felt it profoundly, but the most amazing part was watching our children transform my husband. It's happening to you while you are watching it happen to someone else at the same time, and you share this amazing bond over it.

My daughter will be 3 in October. It's often exhausting being a parent to a young kid while also working FT, but I love her so much I want to just envelop her.

I'm not someone who doesn't see my kid's flaws, but at the same time there's a part of me that looks at her and thinks "wow. she's just incredible." I don't mean that in a superficial, bragging sense. I mean it in an indescribable, visceral sense that I think only my husband and I could understand when it comes to her in particular. We think it purely because she's our child.

At the same time, I'm happy to put her to bed at night because I know she's safe and cozy in her crib and DH and I can have time together. I'm happy she's in preschool because she loves it and is getting a lot out of it. I miss her while she's away, but I'm glad to have my job and my time on my own as well.

It's hard to explain, but it's absolutely the most incredible experience I've ever had.

Anonymous wrote:I have a 4 month old baby and was not expecting the overwhelming amount of love I would have for him. I once read a quote that having a child is like watching your heart walk around outside of your body. That's the best way I can describe this feeling.

Does that love ever fade or change? Are parents just always walking around, always half thinking of their children, always wanting to be with them? Because this love is wonderful and overwhelming, but it puts the whole word in a different and more tender perspective. I have a lot more patience and understanding of other parents now.

Part of it is hormonal right now--wouldn't really serve us well to be like this all the time, although it's expected and normal in the early days. I love my 8yo, but I'm able to focus on work and other things while my child is in school, and then look forward to seeing them at the end of the day.

I'm not a sentimental person but sometimes I choke when I see my son do something or say something. I don't think I could ever love another person like this.

I never felt this feeling and it makes me sad. I do love my child but haven’t experienced what PPs have described

My kids are adults now, and I adore them, feel angst when they struggle, and would die for them. But I remember that moment of indescribable love that I felt when I became a mother. Corny, I know, but it honestly felt like God was talking to me, blessing me, and I don’t know what else, but powerful. I remember thinking, if we could feel one small bit that way to our fellow human beings, the world could be free of war, poverty and despair. Thank God this is an anonymous forum!

I remember that intense feeling with my first - like how can I ever leave her? I cried the first time I got on an airplane to be away from her. I sort of chuckle about that now because I gleefully would get on an airplane now.

So to answer your question: The love never fades but (at least for me) the desire to be around them all the time certainly has. I have a 3.5 year old and a 15 month old. I am more than happy to go to work in the AM and have them go to daycare and I am happy when they go to sleep at night (although DH and I often look at the monitor and remark on how adorable they are). I think about them while we are apart and hope they are having a good day, but I am not dying to be with them.

I am head over heels for my kid, I but I never got the whole my heart is outside of my body thing. I was a complete person before I had my DS. I guess the best way I can describe it is a crush that doesn't fade.

Like any intense feeling, you get used to carrying it around. But then things will happen that will bring you to your knees every now and then. One moment for me was when the Syrian toddler washed up on the shore. That picture destroyed me, because I had a child almost the exact same age.

But yes that feeling of love can bring anxiety, like a PP noted. How will I care for them in a larger emergency etc. These are things I barely gave a second thought to before children....

It changes. When you start nudging them towards independence, and they enjoy it and thrive with it, you get proud of them not needing you. So by the time they leave for college you're excited to see them and hear from them, but you don't actually want to spend every minute with them.

For me the love never fades, I will never not love my kids or want the best for them. It's an amazing feeling. But sometimes when they're being the worst teenagers they can possibly be, you wonder WTH happened to that sweet little baby? That usually passes!

My oldest is a middle schooler and it’s still there. I don’t think it’s possible to understand until you have kids.

Parent of a 6 year old here, it was a shock to me also. I haven't found that it fades but it changes You learn to cope. I needed a little bit of therapy to deal with anxiety related to my child's safety, for example. And you will need breaks or welcome bedtime or send them to camp, which doesn't mean you don't love them.

I had a hard time with some violent events that were in the news when my child was an infant, because on top of all the awfulness I was thinking about the mothers of those involved, and thst the adults had once been infants like mine. That focus on infancy did fade with time.

Yes I was also shocked by this too. I am a much more sensitive person since having kids.

I have a 4 month old baby and was not expecting the overwhelming amount of love I would have for him. I once read a quote that having a child is like watching your heart walk around outside of your body. That's the best way I can describe this feeling.

Does that love ever fade or change? Are parents just always walking around, always half thinking of their children, always wanting to be with them? Because this love is wonderful and overwhelming, but it puts the whole word in a different and more tender perspective. I have a lot more patience and understanding of other parents now.