SELFISHNESS...................
Ah, the memories...
I've had a lot of younger people (ahem Millennials and mostly hipsters at that) try to tell me that "parenting" a dog was more or less the same as parenting actual human beings. Yeah, okay.
It's also a bit of Peter Pan Syndrome as well (fear of growing up). Proper parenting requires that one become a proper grown up, and a lot of the Millennials - and again, a lot of today's hipsters - are deathly afraid of growing up for real. Having a dog can make you feel like you're a grown up / responsible for something without the permanent commitment that comes with raising a child.
They’re not broke and not scared of responsibility. They like pets.
Stupid article, just as I’d expect from the guardian.
It is the result of social acceptance of birth control
It is also the result of having grown up with absent parents. Spending one’s infancy in day without a mother is damaging to the psyche. There is a lack of parenting instinct in these young people
I blame their parent, my peers. They are the clueless ones.
As a dog owner I hate that name Fur Baby. My dog is not a baby, he is a puppy.
In the case of my millennials, they can’t afford kids. They’re barely keeping their head above water. Sad. Big families are now discouraged also.
I’ll take “Scared of Responsibility” for 400, Alex.
Same goes double for the LGBTQ’s.
All I ask is "Who raised them?"
Best essay on the social self-destruction of the West I’ve read in many a moon:
“12 Years a Slave: The Making of a Modern Woman”
I haven’t read the article yet, but most of the “fur baby” people I know are younger boomers and older Gen Xers. Millennials do not have a monopoly on avoiding personal responsibility.
I know there are always people who say “I don’t know that I want to bring a new life into this world, considering the current state of affairs”. People have probably been saying that since ancient times. However, in a world in which your kid can decide to change its gender when it’s in the first grade (and this will eventually be forced on parents), I don’t blame people for opting for pets.
Homosexuals who have the good sense of decency not to procure actual human infants refer to their pet animals as “fur babies”.
To each his own.
Maybe they know that they could not take care of a human baby appropriately.
There is nothing wrong with having or adopting a pet.
That teaches them responsibility too and maybe after a while they will be ready for a human baby, who will enjoy playing with the pet as he or she is growing up.
(Grammar NAZI gripe - it’s REGIMEN, not “regime”. Geesh I hate that...regime-regimen-regiment.)
Hi, Stravinsky-!
While it may seem funny, in a Sad Sack type of way, to laugh at them, I think it’s just one front of a two-sided coin.
The Millennials are also viewing total destruction of the family unit by children making false claims against parents simply because mom or dad puts their foot down and the child doesn’t like it.
Then there’s the almost automatic accusation of child abuse/molestation allegations being thrown around prior to and during divorces.
There’s also the school systems (hey, even private ones are getting a bit wacky!) that are on constant Brain-Wash Mode, pitting children against parents.
I’m in my 60s and I willingly admit that having seen some stuff that would cause me to wonder if having Fur Babies would have been the way to go if I were one of today’s youth....
Yes, I admit there’s a bit of selfishness in the Millennial pattern of thinking; not going to deny that. Just honest enough to see the rational behind their thinking on some points.
This has been happening here as well as in the UK.
We know several widows and divorced women, who ended with up dogs or cats instead of remarrying.
Now, even the married millennial couples often have dogs and/or cats instead of kids.
One couple has 5 high energy Brittany Spaniels, which keep the owners in shape just walking them, of course no children.
The family across the street has Grand Great Danes instead of kids.
Single guys and gals often have dogs. It funny to see a 6+’ buffed guy walking a dog smaller than one of his shoes, and petite woman with a large killer breed of dog weighing more than her.
Power to them. Something inside them, may have told them that they would not be good parents for whatever reason.
Cuz they buy this bullsh** “there are too many people and its destroying the planet” enviromyth.
I’ve noticed this too but here’s what I think it is. More people PREFER relationships with pets BECAUSE it doesn’t require them to change or grow in any way. When we’re in a relationship with a real person we have to learn to give or take or else our life will be miserable. With a pet there is no give or take. YOU are in charge. YOU are the boss. YOU can do whatever you want and be as nasty and rude as you want and the pet can’t do a darn thing about it.