{"id":3099,"date":"2014-02-14T07:40:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T12:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=3099"},"modified":"2025-11-07T12:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:39:12","slug":"stages-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/14\/stages-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Stages of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back I came across an article on my Twitter feed that really struck a chord with me, it\u2019s been on my mind ever since so I decided to revisit it.\u00a0 The article is on the\u00a0\u201c7 Stages of Unconditional Love\u201d<\/a>and while I\u2019m not sure as to the basis behind the stages (from what I can tell, it is a theory the author developed after her own experience, much like my\u00a0\u201cRoy Theory”<\/a>\u00a0of Child Development), I\u2019ve since looked up other \u201cStages of Love\u201d and while they may be more credible or researched, none of them struck me like the original did.<\/p>\n

The 7 stages include Crazy Love, Numb Love, Fun Love, Forgiving Love, Generous Love, Romantic Love and Unconditional Love.\u00a0 While I like to believe after 11 \u00bd years and 3 babies hubby and I are firmly in the Unconditional Love stage, he is not the reason the article has remained with me.\u00a0 What has stuck in my head is how these stages relate to my children!<\/p>\n

\"h<\/a>The first stage, Crazy Love, involves a \u201crelease intoxicating chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine.\u201d\u00a0 Ummm, so yeah\u2026that totally sound like what happens to a mommy during pregnancy and childbirth!\u00a0 This Crazy Love phase also involves making one \u201cspacey and dopey.\u201d\u00a0 Mommy brain, anyone?\u00a0 This phase overlaps the numb love phase where you still can\u2019t think straight and apparently can\u2019t feel pain which reminds me of the early stages with a new baby when you are so infatuated with your new little person that while the pain\/discomfort of breastfeeding and after-pains can be bad, they are nothing compared to that sweet little thing in your arms!<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>The third stage, Fun Love comes about 9 months into the relationship and this the one that has really kept me thinking about love.\u00a0 9 months.\u00a0 That\u2019s where I am with Doodle.\u00a0 During Fun Love, all the chemicals have worn off and this stage of love is easy, you genuinely like being around each other and everything seems fun\u2014even diaper changes and getting all wet even though it\u2019s not YOUR bath time!<\/p>\n

\"DSC00266<\/a>Forgiving love comes next and this makes me think of the toddler stage: \u201cyour partner is testing you.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t toddlerhood all about testing limits and seeing if you\u2019re still loved?\u00a0 Generous Love comes next and I can confidently say after the \u201ctesting phase\u201d of toddlerhood, children do indeed become generous, they starting doing things to please you and do so without expecting anything in return other than your love (which is basically the definition of Generous Love.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Romantic Love follows next while this one seems hard to relate to children, it\u2019s really not that far of a stretch.\u00a0 This stage involves feeling like our partner is there for us, feeling secure and satisfied in the relationship.\u00a0 This is the phase in parenting, I think, when you start to relax and gain confidence in the job you are doing and you actually start really enjoying doing things with your kids like going to eat just the two of you or going to the movies.\u00a0 In this phase you kind of start dating your child, in a way, which is one of the keys for maintaining Romantic Love.<\/p>\n

The last phase, Unconditional Love, though, I think actually come first when you\u2019re talking about your children.\u00a0 This is the phase where you \u201cstretch out of your comfort zone\u2026Give freely.\u00a0 Forgive easily.\u00a0 Laugh, and never stop having fun.\u201d\u00a0 I think the second you lock eyes on your beautiful baby (and sometimes even before, perhaps when you see their fuzzy figure on ultrasound or hear their heartbeat or feel their tiny little kicks) you\u2019re there!\u00a0 You love this tiny little being more than anything and you would do anything for them.\u00a0 Some people question the existence of unconditional love, but I think parenting is proof that it exists!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back I came across an article on my Twitter feed that really struck a chord with me, it\u2019s been on my mind ever since so I decided to revisit it.\u00a0 The article is on the\u00a0\u201c7 Stages of Unconditional Love\u201dand while I\u2019m not sure as to the basis behind the stages (from what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8],"tags":[39,81,80,54,78],"class_list":["post-3099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-baby-business","tag-baby","tag-children","tag-love","tag-toddler","tag-valentines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3099"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15677,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions\/15677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}