It is lovely to hear parents before sending their kids to bed tell them ‘I love you to the moon and back’. This phrase is filled with unconditional love, which is what we need more as inhabitants of this earth. ‘It can be I love you to “anything” and back’ but then to me, what matters most is the deepness of the love you are declaring to people.

It should be noted that this phrase is not only used by parents to their kids. I have heard lovebirds, and couples use them also, especially on social media. Some maybe sincere and others just using it to flatter the other for reasons I don’t know. People also use the phrase to show appreciation for something someone has done.

When I was making my Internet rounds before writing this post, I fell on this phrase on Urban Dictionary and this definition of unconditional love from one of it’s contributors tickled my brain and made me to find out more about it. See below 🙂

“A clumsy bogan phrase used by Facebook Mums and Daughters to express a quantum of love as a measurement of distance.”

Example: ‘happy bday to my darling husband colin i love you to the moon and back xxx’

People have put in endless efforts to explain what love really is. This means love itself maybe a generational thing. From the definition above, I feel a sense of frustration in the author of this statement when it comes to expressing love on social media. We all know what happens on social media. There’s a lot of insincerity when people sit behind their keyboards.

However, when it comes to a mother and child relationship, such an expression of love goes beyond that definition given above. Mothers usually have an unconditional love for their children. They mean it when they say ‘I love you to the moon and back’. It comes from the heart, shown in their actions and they have a lot of faith when saying that.

My ongoing search on unconditional love, led me to a post on Savvymom which shows the phrase originated from Sam McBratney’s Guess How Much I Love You. I culled this from the post:

‘I love you up to the moon,’ said Little Nutbrown Hare.

‘Oh, that’s far,’ said Big Nutbrown Hare. ‘That is very far.’ Big Nutbrown Hare settles Little Nutbrown Hare into his bed of leaves.

He leaned over and kissed him goodnight. Then he lay down close by and whispered with a smile, ‘I love you to the moon and back.’

I have not read the book itself (would love to) but the cartoon has so much love in it. There is unconditional love expressed in everything about that cartoon. The leaves, the snow, the animals, in fact nature as a whole.

Lastly, this is what I read on Funsubstance on unconditional love:

“DID YOU KNOW?

Every day the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.

So, when you tell someone you love them “to the moon and back”, you’re essentially saying you will love them with all the blood your heart pumps your whole life. Which I think is equally as meaningful.”

Unconditional love is caring for the happiness of others, without thinking of getting something in return. It is not about you liking someone because they give you what you want. You don’t need any payback when you show such a love. There are many lovely mothers out there who share these with their children.

To be frank with you, unconditional love is rare to find when it is not a parent-child relationship (especially mother-child). Do you agree or disagree?

Read: Showing love to oneself

That’ll be all for today 🙂 Thanks for reading, stay safe and see you in the next post.