How do babies/kids learn love?

Question

I was just thinking about that. How do they really know what mommy/or whoever says when she says "I love you". How do they know the emotion? How do they know what they're saying when they say it back. Usually, mom's don't tell them because I don't think there is a way to describe it to them. ( well maybe they do, I'm not a mother but...) So how do they get to know what love is. And when they do say it or feel it, how do they know if it's love they are feeling.

Answer 1

they learn love by being loved.

Answer 2

I know in my case I was taught about love by my parents. From an early age they discounted me and told me I was a little monster. To get their attention (which I equated with Love) I acted out.
Later, as a grown person I was really unprepared to feel or love someone else. What I expected, the discounting and calling me names, did happen. The only difference is now I fought back. My mother fought my father when he treated her rotten, I thought it was OK for me. It was not.
The way I knew this was love is my mother got this treatment from my father and he said he loved her, so when my husband treated me rotten he was showing me he loved me.

Answer 3

Babies love their mothers. It's a spiritual thing, almost like an instinct. And mothers love their babies but if they're not on the right side spiritually they abort them. Not meaning to preach but it's terrible. They know the emotion because God plants it into them.

Answer 4

excellent question, love is an inherent nature in all human beings, love is the bond of human kind and all living things. Words are only used to communicate thoughts, both are commonly misguided, to say "i love you" does not mean the person actually feels Love, or even knows what it is. it all develops in time. trust me, you will KNOW when you feel love- TRUE, inexplicable love.