Unconditional Love

A million dollar question: does unconditional love exist? Some said it does. A mother carries a baby for a whole nine months follows by a process of bringing up the child. This includes feeding, changing diapers, spending savings for years of school tuition. Would the job be done when he/she has his/her own family? Probably not, there will still be a continuous road of support and the job might not be done until the death of the parents. Grown ups still need emotional and even financial supports from their parents.

What do the parents want in return for their hard works and money? Is the whole arrangement resemble a business deal where the parents are supposed to bring up their children and hopefully in the future when they get old and sick, and even death, their children can return the favor by fulfilling their last wishes? Obviously, there is no such thing as “parents-children exchange of duty written agreement” or settlement exists for this act of responsibility. Usually, the children would assume that they do not need any kind of verbal nor written agreement to perform the duty of taking care of their parents when they are aged.

How about marriage? Does unconditional love imply to marriage? Marriage does not come with a manual. Many marriages ended up in divorces when couples could not get what they need out of their marriage. There must be some kind of expectations from the marriage. Both parties usually have to bring in their fair share of works. Everybody has to take lesson from “Marriage 101″ – learning from experiences, from friends, and from parents.

When someone gets married, not only this person is married to his/her spouse, but this person is also married to the whole family. Even the in-laws would expect something from you. In-laws are usually around often enough to chip in their responsibilities. In-laws from husband’s side usually would stick around to make sure the daughter-in-law would bear the seed for the family. In-laws from the wife’s side would make sure that the husband and his family would not take advantage of their daughter.

There is no such thing as “unconditional love”. Even though, parents, children, or in-laws don’t say things out in the open, they all would expect to have something in return for things they have put out. I think every relationship is a give and take. Nothing is giving free if you seriously think about it…