Pets vs. Children at 2:05 PM

Most of my friends know that I don't really care for children. They are loud, messy, and for the most part not very useful to anyone. I know, "not my children, not every child, blah blah". The other day at work thought I found myself standing up for the temporary little people, not to be confused with the permanently little people that get handicap parking spaces and their own shows on the Discovery channel. One of my coworkers was talking about her child and how they keep getting into the Christmas ornaments, how the little girl has broken a lot of the glass ones on the bottom of the tree (a bad place to put glass ornaments if you ask me) and one of the supervisors made the remark that his puppy does the same thing, "He's still a puppy so he gets into a lot of stuff he shouldn't too." This struck me as an odd connection, but after thinking about it, a connection that seems to appear often.

Maybe it is an attempt to make a connection to parents. Single people don't have kids most of the time, but rather they fill that space with pets. They personify their pets and treat them as their children. I'm really not that bothered by this; if I could have a dog I would in a heartbeat and would probably treat him as my child. The problem is when they start comparing their animal to other people's children. Your cat will not grow up to drive, go to college, and generally be a productive member of society. You do not need to worry that your dog will fall into the wrong crowd. No your pet goldfish with his friendly personality and dashing good looks isn't falling behind in class or going through "a stage". I know they may feel like your child, but really they aren't exactly on the same level.

If I had a kid and someone compared them to their Great Dane I think I would nicely smile at them and nod my head as I thought "What the F#$#% are you talking about. At no time did my partner and I worry that our child had hookworms or flick them on their nose for begging at the table." I'm trying real hard to give pet owners some leeway here. But really I think people just put up with them out of consideration and a need to appear nicer than their thoughts really are. Do we really want children to be compared to animals, more than they already are?