Having a kid is not like having a pet.

Let me start by saying that I love animals.  People that know me know this.  I have a cat that I have had for 13 years.  I got her in college and took care of her even when she was no longer a cute little kitten and my roommate grew tired with her.  If I was going to be gone for a few days, I had to harass my roommate to feed her.  I put post it notes all over the apartment with annoying little reminders.  I was convinced that I would return to find an emaciated cat or a carcass laying near an unopened bag of cat food.

Then before I had children, my husband and I got a dog.  I use to drive a cute little Volkswagen.  I traded it in for an SUV mainly so my 130 lb dog could fit in the back.  I use to surf the Petfinder website just to look at poor unwanted dogs and cry because I wanted to adopt each and every one.  If an animal dies in a movie, I just can't bear it.  And I still can't watch an ASPCA commercial (with that damn tearjerking music) without getting choked up. 

I agree that pets are a great deal of work.  House training them is a bitch.  They are expensive.  My dog costs $85 to get groomed.  Therefore, she is usually living it up at the groomer every 3 to 4 months while I swing into the local drugstore and grab a $5 box of hair color and call it a day.  Don't even get me started on the vet bills.  My vet takes a holistic approach which translates into even higher vet bills for god knows what.  Is it necessary to send a sample of my 9 year old dog's blood from Delaware to the University of Colorado to test if she already has antibodies to certain illnesses?  Can't we can vaccinate and be done with it? I guess not.

I also agree that a pet can be like a member of the family.  We have had our dog for over 9 years.  She has been here through the addition of all 3 children.  Each time we brought one of the girls home from the hospital over the years, I swear the dog would look at me as if to say, "Are you freakin' kidding me with this?"  I promised her that we were done.  The cat, on the other had, could care less.  She just knows that she has to be more skillful in finding a quiet place to sleep.  But I do believe that pets are a part of the family, and losing one of them can be devastating.

Here's my dog. Sometimes I think she hates us.

But with all of that being said, I just have to say that having a pet is in no way like having a child.  Here are some reasons why that should be glaringly obvious...

You can't come home from work, let your child out of the crate to go to the bathroom outside just so you can put them right back in their crate and head to happy hour. 

You can't hire a person to stop by your house a few times a day while you are out to take your kids for a walk.  Although if I could, I really would consider it.

You can't put you children in a kennel when the mood strikes to take a little vacation.

Putting a bowl of water on the floor for your child to drink out of is not considered acceptable.  But now that I think about it, my 1 yr old is quite fond of trying to drink out of the cat's or dog's water bowl...

When your children wake you up early, that's it, you are up.  You can't just let them out to pee in the grass and then head back to bed for a few more hours of shut eye. 

A 20 lb bag of dry food per week for a child probably won't cut it. 

Your child, even if they are extremely small in stature, can't be trained to go to the bathroom on newspaper on your kitchen floor.

Your child doesn't (or shouldn't) stand at the back door and bark when they want to come in...or bark when they want to go out, or bark when someone knocks at the door.

SO there are some of my reasons behind why I think that having a child is not like having a pet.  It's nothing groundbreaking...it's just that kids are humans, and pets are...well, animals.  Not quite the same.

Do you agree???  I would love to hear.  And I hope all my animal lovers don't get upset...please, I am one of you.  I love my pets.  I just love my kids more.