I'm learning to love my inner child when I get rid of the punitive parent and/or the adult. I felt my inner child when I felt delight at seeing two kites flying at the beach today and got all excited about it. Like something within was set free. I'm learning the child is still intact, though a bit wounded, the child was in me as a mother (my core personality.) I love the child in me when I recognize and recall good moments of childhood, although in some ways the child grows, but still remains the child within. ?? So I can nurture my inner child as I did my own children, really.
I know it's always supposed to be good to love the child in you, even if something got hurt or lost, because this was the essential time of
innocence.