Love Don't Live Here Anymore

There is a song by Rose Royce titled, Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.  “Just a vacancy, love don’t live here anymore.”  I’m sure we can all relate.  Who hasn’t had a broken heart?  Relationships start and they end.  We all want to love and be loved, after all we were designed that way.  We seek companionship, and we get excited when we think that we’ve finally found, “THE ONE”.  There is nothing like that in love feeling, he/she is the best thing since sliced bread, until the day when he/she is not.  I often wonder if as parents who date, we think about the impact our relationships have on our children.  I mean how many times have you fallen in love, and if you’ve fallen in love, perhaps your child has too, maybe they think he/she is the best thing since sliced bread as well.   When adults decide that a relationship isn’t going to work, what does that mean for the children?  Most children who grow up in a single household, really do crave the love and stability of the missing parent. 

I’ve personally witnessed a single dad of small children systematically go through several relationships because he just did not want to be alone.  Every woman had been introduced and integrated into the family.  How heartbreaking must that be to his little girl, who is seeking a mother figure, when every time she becomes attached to someone that person disappears from her life?  It’s difficult for us to get over a broken heart as an adult, I can’t imagine what that must be like for a child who has absolutely no say in the matter because “Love don’t live here anymore.”  As parents maybe we should view dating differently, and consider the ramifications of our children witnessing people come and out of their lives and what message that may be sending.  Maybe everybody we date doesn’t get to meet our children.  I think if we thought about our children more we think of dating, it would greatly decrease the number of people suitable to take up space in our lives, not only that I think it would seriously decrease the number of broken hearts we experience.   We are responsible for guarding our children’s hearts, they have no say in who comes in and out their lives, but we do.