Chapter 5
Maternal Love
People Affected: mothers with children younger than 33 months
Type of Emotion: conceptual reward
Conceptual Trigger: "my child is happy"
Mental Effect: positive
Key Feature: the happier the child, the stronger the effect,
Key Feature: has a duration of 33 months for each child
Type of Emotion: conceptual reward
Conceptual Trigger: "my child is happy"
Mental Effect: positive
Key Feature: the happier the child, the stronger the effect,
Key Feature: has a duration of 33 months for each child
Purpose
Maternal love primarily encourages mothers to breastfeed their children. It secondarily encourages mothers to teach their children.
Conceptual Trigger
Maternal love primarily encourages mothers to breastfeed their children. It secondarily encourages mothers to teach their children.
Conceptual Trigger
Maternal love is triggered by a child’s happiness. Happiness is a summary term. If someone is happy, they feel a positive effect. If someone is unhappy, they feel a negative effect.
Eating is the primary source of happiness for children under 24 months. Children do not feel conceptions until 24 months. They do not feel sexual sensations until puberty. They do not feel cute until 33 months. Consequently, the only positive or negative sensations they feel are: pleasing taste, hunger, disgust, affection, loneliness, excitement and boredom. Of these sensations, pleasing taste and hunger are usually the strongest.
Teaching is a secondary source of happiness. If a child has recently been fed, the strongest sensations it will feel are affection, loneliness, excitement and boredom. Children feel affection when they interact with their mothers and loneliness if they do not. Children feel excitement when they see new scenery and boredom if they do not.
Maternal love is triggered regardless of who makes a child happy. Maternal love is triggered by “my child is happy”, not by “I made my child happy”. This ensures mothers do what is best for their child. If maternal love was triggered by “I made my child happy”, mothers would not feel love when grandmothers cared for their children.
Mental Effect
Eating is the primary source of happiness for children under 24 months. Children do not feel conceptions until 24 months. They do not feel sexual sensations until puberty. They do not feel cute until 33 months. Consequently, the only positive or negative sensations they feel are: pleasing taste, hunger, disgust, affection, loneliness, excitement and boredom. Of these sensations, pleasing taste and hunger are usually the strongest.
Teaching is a secondary source of happiness. If a child has recently been fed, the strongest sensations it will feel are affection, loneliness, excitement and boredom. Children feel affection when they interact with their mothers and loneliness if they do not. Children feel excitement when they see new scenery and boredom if they do not.
Maternal love is triggered regardless of who makes a child happy. Maternal love is triggered by “my child is happy”, not by “I made my child happy”. This ensures mothers do what is best for their child. If maternal love was triggered by “I made my child happy”, mothers would not feel love when grandmothers cared for their children.
Mental Effect
Maternal love varies with a child’s happiness. The happier a child is, the stronger the positive effect. Mothers feel stronger love when they see their children smile.
Maternal love varies with a child’s happiness to maximize a child’s development. To maximize the love they feel, mothers do what maximizes a child’s happiness. The happier a child is, the faster it will develop. The more a child enjoys food, the more nutritional it is. The more a child enjoys affection, the more intensive the interaction. The more a child enjoys excitement, the more novel the scenery.
Maternal love varies with a child’s happiness to maximize a child’s development. To maximize the love they feel, mothers do what maximizes a child’s happiness. The happier a child is, the faster it will develop. The more a child enjoys food, the more nutritional it is. The more a child enjoys affection, the more intensive the interaction. The more a child enjoys excitement, the more novel the scenery.
Maternal love stops when a child is 33 months old. Mothers maximize their reproduction by focusing on the next child when the current child can feed itself. By 33 months, children can feed themselves if food is available. They can walk and their first set of teeth have completed eruption.
The natural duration of breastfeeding is 33 months, as surveys of non-Western societies have shown. A Time to Wean: The Hominid Blueprint for the Natural Age of Weaning in Modern Human Populations (Breastfeeding – Biocultural Perspectives) by Katherine Dettwyler explores this subject indepth.
Affection continues after 33 months. Affection is the positive effect that mothers continue to feel when they see or hear their children. Affection usually grows stronger over time. However, it never reaches the strength of maternal love.
The threat of maternal grief also continues after 33 months.
The end of maternal love is the second of four reasons for the terrible-two’s. When a child is 33 months old, mothers no longer receive a hit of maternal love when they make their child happy.
Other Species
Species feel maternal love if mothers feed their offspring. All mammals and most birds feel maternal love.
Kissing
Kissing is a cultural adaptation that evolved from the maternal transfer of masticated food. Before pablum, mothers chewed solid food and then transferred it to their children by putting their mouths directly on their child’s mouth. The transfer was emotional for both mother and child. Both felt affection and pleasing taste. Mothers also felt maternal love. Because mouth-mating was a universal experience, it was also universally recognized as a signal of positive emotions.
The natural duration of breastfeeding is 33 months, as surveys of non-Western societies have shown. A Time to Wean: The Hominid Blueprint for the Natural Age of Weaning in Modern Human Populations (Breastfeeding – Biocultural Perspectives) by Katherine Dettwyler explores this subject indepth.
Affection continues after 33 months. Affection is the positive effect that mothers continue to feel when they see or hear their children. Affection usually grows stronger over time. However, it never reaches the strength of maternal love.
The threat of maternal grief also continues after 33 months.
The end of maternal love is the second of four reasons for the terrible-two’s. When a child is 33 months old, mothers no longer receive a hit of maternal love when they make their child happy.
Other Species
Species feel maternal love if mothers feed their offspring. All mammals and most birds feel maternal love.
Kissing
Kissing is a cultural adaptation that evolved from the maternal transfer of masticated food. Before pablum, mothers chewed solid food and then transferred it to their children by putting their mouths directly on their child’s mouth. The transfer was emotional for both mother and child. Both felt affection and pleasing taste. Mothers also felt maternal love. Because mouth-mating was a universal experience, it was also universally recognized as a signal of positive emotions.
Happiness Dissected is a more practical version of The Origin of Emotions.