AGOA!

Such important details aside, as a writer, I think that telling someone "I love you more than my own children" is a much more effective literary device, unless you're just reassuring someone you're adopting that you think of him or her as "just another one of my kids." The very hyperbole is what makes it effective. I guess it depends on the intention, and it's certainly up to the OP, but if this were for a book or story, I'd stick with the original.

Redwolf

This post preempted me in a way, Redwolf.

I was going to sneak back in and say that I've changed my mind back again, and reverting to my first thought, 'I love you more than I love my children'. The speaker is talking to the love of their life, and it's an obsessive sort of relationship, so I think the transgressive feel of the original line fits the character.

Sorry to have put people to the trouble of translating a different phrase for me, but you have helped to clarify my thoughts so I'm grateful.

I agree the original form has more "punch".

(As a translator, though, I was interested in seeing how both forms could be worded in Irish. )

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Hello.

This is where I am at the moment:

"Mo ghrá thú. Tá níos mó grá agam duitse ná do mo chuid páistí. Tá tú níos tábhachtai dom ná mo shaol féin. B'fhearr liom bás a fháil ná bheith gan tusa."

This is a combination of people's suggestions, and my choices are governed partly by a problem I've given myself. I don't want to offer a translation to English within my story, but rather I'm hinting at the meaning but leaving anyone who's curious to find out for themselves. Inevitably they'll go to Google, and unsurprisingly that's where it gets tricky.

What Google gives for the above is:

"I love you. I have more love for you than for my kids. You are more important to me than my own life. I'd rather die than be without you."

It's good enough.

Odd things happen with other alternatives. For example, the second sentence variation suggested, "Tá níos mó grá agam duitse ná do mo chuid páistí féin," becomes "I have loved you more than my own children" in Google's robot version. It's also bizarre that with this version they give 'children' whereas with the one above they give 'kids'.

Anyway, does the version I've given at the top of this post look okay?

I've also, incidentally, found a phrase of Redwolf's in another thread that I may use as well: "Beidh grá agam daoibh go deo".

Using Google Trashlate is not something we normally recommend. However, I can see the logic of the concept. What you have will work given the constraints.

(Isn't it aggravating how it completely changes the translation with only minor changes to the original. Even a change of punctuation can sometimes destroy the result. )

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Thanks.

I've never really had cause to use Google Trashlate before, so I didn't realise it was quite so eccentric. But I think in the circumstances it'll do a good enough job translating the Irish version back to English.