Old School Love

"You don't really love her," I can hear my mother saying it now. From the beginning of time to present it has been a long fought out battle between children and their parents about the real meaning of love. In the end, it's pretty much all the same. I believe that love has different meanings for teens and adults and they are dead set on their beliefs. I have realized that the way children and adults think about love changes depending on situations as where he or she was born, raised, or just how they were brought up in this world.

It all starts on that first date, when little miss "I'm an adult now" brings home her first boyfriend and begins the deep childhood ritual called "puppy love." Now I am not saying that puppy love cannot exist between two adults, it can happen to anyone. Puppy love is one of the beginning steps in venturing towards realizing the meaning of true love. One would ask, "What is the definition of love?", and get a really short or a really lengthy answer from the average person, because everyone has their own opinion or belief about the wonders of this mighty dilemma. I think love can only be earned or given and is a true gift from a friend or loved one.

The problem starts is when the child believes that he or she is in love with their significant other, and the parent begins the old debate about how the child is not in love, thus begins a war. These debates and arguments will go on for the next decade or so until the child has grown up and realized the true meaning of love. The child's belief of love will always be the form of puppy love, which is just a very strong attraction to the other person. The child will normally never realize or know the other side of love, the real one.

The parents on the other hand obviously know the true meaning of love, because they are mature enough to know and have experienced it before. In my opinion, adults can grasp on to the aspect of this because they have been through teenage life, and see the difference between puppy love and real love. The majority of the time the parent is married so they have had experienced a ritual of true love.

There is a very fine line between parents and children on the subject of love, and some teens will argue that they do know the true meaning, and yes they may. But love is a tricky thing, I have always thought you really don't know what love is until you have