Polite way to respond to 'I love you'?

[MadMadge43]

When you're in love with someone, it means you've fallen for the person that they are. It's a crush when you've fallen for the person you imagine them to be.

LyKanth, what a lovely way to express it. It is so dead on, you can only imagine the person they are after a few days or weeks.

By the way FrosLass, love at first sight is not actually love at first sight. It's lust at first sight- we've all been through it, it's only when it turns into love by getting to know the person can people claim, "love at first sight", but the most just turn into forgotten memories.

[Froslass]

Thank you all so much for the great replies, I really appreciate it.  This really isn't anyone my age I can talk to about these matters as they see no problem with the early L-words. 

Oh, and;

If your sort of boyfriend says he loves you this soon, be wary.  Be very wary.  There is usually a reason for this, and it usually involves getting nekkid.

made me laugh, because it's so true.

If you want, I'll keep you posted on what happens.

[Rockie]

Thank you all so much for the great replies, I really appreciate it.  This really isn't anyone my age I can talk to about these matters as they see no problem with the early L-words. 

Oh, and;

If your sort of boyfriend says he loves you this soon, be wary.  Be very wary.  There is usually a reason for this, and it usually involves getting nekkid.

made me laugh, because it's so true.

If you want, I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Please do, if you don't mind. ^_^

My own little anecdote: when my boyfriend first told me he loved me, I was so caught off guard I couldn't even say anything (my face was probably something like "O.O" XD), as I had barely even gotten my head wrapped around the whole "relationship" thing (this is my first one). He kissed me and told me not to worry about saying it back as some sort of obligation, that when I was ready to say it, I'd mean it and it would be special to him. He even had to say it for me the first time I said it because even when I did want to say it, I still couldn't get the words out. XD;

So yep, nothing wrong with not saying it back right away, though previous posters said it better than I could.

[Hunter-Gatherer]

My first "rel@tionship" involved a long, drawn out, extremely messy break up.  When I met the woman who is now my wife, it had been long enough that I had (mostly) moved on and was ready to be dating and eventually in a relationship again, but I wanted to take things pretty slowly.

The result was that we both felt the "L" word before I was ready to say it, and she felt she needed to say it at a point when we both knew that I wasn't ready to say it yet.  When she did say it, I couldn't help myself, and responded with the ever popular classic, "I know." 

[little bird]

When DF first said he loved me (WAYYYY early in our relationship) I told him that I really liked him, really enjoyed our time together and that I wasn't ready to say the L-word because I never wanted to cheapen what we had.  He seemed happy with this and it made the first time I did say the L-word so much more special because he really knew that I'd thought about it and I meant it, it wasn't just an impulse to say it back.