My son Aiden (6) is obsessed with marriage (and divorce) currently. When he was 3 he met S who became his bestest friend super fast. She informed him soon thereafter that they were going to get married. For 18 months at least she would get upset when he tried to play with other kids. Then she wanted to play with girls a bit more, and then when Aiden was 5 we took him out of school (K) and S accelerated to grade 1 at the same time. They still see each other regularly, email each other and call each other. (her mom and I are friends now too). But S now says that they are too young to make that decision now, and Aiden is "confused" because he loves S (now 7) and J (now 9) and M (now 6) and he doesn't know who to marry.
We keep suggesting he put off the decision or even thinking about it for another 20 years or so.
Sometimes its more like they enjoy the marrying of the minds or ability - to find someone who has anything in common with you after what is to them a really long time, must seem magical and ethereal - it may disappear any moment now.
for Aiden right now, his friend's parents are separating etc and he is so stressed about it that its his full focus now - strong marriage and no divorce! He wants to help fix it for her, but he can't and thats sad too. He also wants to be a cardiologist one day to fix both her and her mom's broken hearts.
My rambling point is that it could be that they match in some way, and it can be that to most kids of this age, love is pure - its the purest thing, and when they say love they think of their parents and family primarily.
