How Is It Possible to Love Your Kids but Not Always Like Them?
The first time a parent admits—even silently, even only to themselves—that they don’t like their child in a particular moment, it can feel like a moral failure. We’re told that love should smooth everything out, that affection should override irritation, that “good parents” don’t have negative feelings toward their kids. But here’s the truth most parents discover eventually: liking your child is a feeling . Loving your child is a commitment . And those two things don’t always show up at the same time. Love is the deep structure; liking is the weather. Love is the tectonic plate under your feet—steady, unmoving, the thing that holds the whole landscape together. Liking is the day’s forecast. Some days are sunny. Some days are fogged in. Some days are a full‑blown storm where you’re pretty sure the barometric pressure is dropping because your kid is stomping down the hallway. You can love someone fiercely and still not enjoy who they are in a particular developmental stage, or in a pa...