From my understanding of "unconditional love" I would have to disagree with dr. Shefali Tsabary. In my mind UL does not mean that we love our children only when all the conditions are met - they are living up to our standards and norms ... For me, UL means that despite all the faults we might see in our child (our subjective opinion), despite the child's life path that is different of what we had in our mind for him, we still love him. E.g. When a child is underachieving in a parents' mind, it might lead to quarreling, bad atmosphere etc. but it rarely leads to parents rejecting their children, which would happen if achieving the parents' standards would be a condition for their love. (And still, the parents would feel pain that would be a sign of their love.) What dr. ST is talking about at the end is, for me, a different tail of love. BECAUSE I love my child, I want all the best for him and I may not be happy with what he chose to be. But I also give him the freedom to choose his path. AND love him anyways.