Do you think it's possible to "love" someone but not like being around them?

1. 82

   Efficient Adminposted 11 years ago

   Do you think it's possible to "love" someone but not like being around them?
   
   In a perfect world the person you are in love with is also someone you really like being around and having conversations with. Many people are truly blessed to have marriages and/or family ties like this.
   
   What do you think about those that say they love someone, but they just don't get along and fight all the time? This applies to marriages, significant others, and even family members.  Can you love someone and don't like them or being around them?  Is "love" and "like" the same thing?  If you don't "like" someone, is it possible to "love" them?

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2. 59

   duffsmomposted 11 years ago

   I believe that yes we can love people but have difficultly being around them. I think it happens all the time. Of course the ideal situation is to love someone as well as like them, but it just isn't possible all the time.
   
   A good example would be a parent and child. A parent loves their child, but that child (adult, teenager whatever) may behave in a way that starts arguments or makes it unpleasant to be around them.  You still love them even if their behavior causes you not to like the or want to be around them.

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   1. 82

      Efficient Adminposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes that makes sense.

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3. 89

   Gcrhoads64posted 11 years ago

   Absolutely. I have family members who would do anything for me, and I would do anything for them. But some of their beliefs are so extreme and bizarre that it is hard to have a pleasant conversation with them.
   
   And yes, they probably would say the same thing about me!

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   1. 82

      Efficient Adminposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes I guess love means not hurting someone and being there for them even if you don't like being around them.

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4. 67

   CrescentSkiesposted 11 years ago

   I love my family, I hate being around some of them.

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5. 63

   Lisa HWposted 11 years ago

   I think that's more than possible with people who ARE NOT one's "significant other", or with a whole and healthy kind of romantic relationship; but I really don't believe, or accept, the idea that someone can truly be "in love" with someone else but not like being around him/her.
   
   To me, it's not a matter of "in a perfect world".  It's a matter of whether it's "perfect love", and while people may always have their little arguments in even "a perfect love"  I don't think those with the right kind of romantic love ever question how true or whole it is at its roots.
   
   The way I see it, there is "loving" someone.  There is "caring about" someone (slightly different from being able to out-and-out call it "love".  Then there is "liking someone".  To me, it's  one of those three things that we can feel toward someone on that "caring scale".  There is also "not liking something the other person does" or "not liking some isolated thing about the other person".  But, to me, when it comes to how we would label our feelings toward someone in general, those feelings would fall under one of those three, clear-cut, categories or else under the fourth, which would be "being in love with them and having a whole and healthy kind of romantic relationship" that has grown past the infatuation stage (a whole, separate thing not necessarily related to this particular question).
   
   People so often say that none of us can ever be perfect.  I don't dispute that.  Too many people think, though, that no love can/will ever be perfect.  THAT is a sentiment that I very much dispute, and I know I'm not alone in my thinking when it comes to that.   

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   1. 82

      Efficient Adminposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Great insight, thank you for sharing.

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6. 73

   Dan Barfieldposted 11 years ago

   I think it is entirely possible to love someone like a family member or a friend whilst also finding it difficult to be around them. I do not think you can really say you are 'in love' with someone (i.e. girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse) if you don't like being around them. Someone's behavior is very much a part of who they are - it is the physical expression of their inner self and character. Behavior can change of course, as can people... but if you need that change to take place for you to be comfortable with that person then it is the idea of a potential future version of your partner that you love and not the present reality.

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      Efficient Adminposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, if you don't like spending time with your significant other, then what's the point. Thanks for sharing.

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7. 72

   JEDIJESSICUHposted 11 years ago

   I do believe that it's possible to love someone and not want to be around them.
   
   I enjoyed a relationship in high school that lasted over the span of four years, on and off, always coming back together because we did love one another. The problem was that we couldn't stand being around one another too often. We could talk on the phone for hours and text for days, but in each other's presence we hated one another.
   
   He was a gamer. I read books. He watched television. I watched birds. We were so different that we had nothing in common when it came to hanging out. We fell in love with each other's personality and physical appearance, but when it came to being together physically, we just had nothing to say to one another.

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8. 70

   MargaritaEdenposted 11 years ago

   Totally possible, people before me said it very well, you might love somebody dearly, but don't like being around them

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9. 71

   dashingscorpioposted 11 years ago

   Yes! I was like that for the most part with my mother.
   I loved her but I couldn't handle her intrusive behavior especially after I was in college and beyond. At age 21 I moved (2000 miles away) from the Midwest to California. Since I didn't know anyone out there at the time there were rumors that I must have been on drugs or something. lol! After living out there for 28 years I was seen as being sane after all. No one in our family had ever moved that far away.

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