Grandpets

On CBS Sunday morning last weekend they did a segment on "grandparents" of pets. That's to say, the parents of grown human children who are either waiting so long to have kids or making the decision to not have kids and instead having pets as their "children"-making the would be grandparents, the grandparents of their children's pets. Am I making sense here? Perhaps the clearer term would be grandpets. Here's a link to the story if you are interested.

Anyway, watching the story got me thinking about my own life. My husband and I have been unable to have children ourselves and right now is not the right time to even think about adoption simply because of my health and our finances. We have a wonderful dog and rabbit - I simply can't imagine life without them. They bring us such joy, laughter and trigger those feel good chemicals in the brain. We may never have the joy of human babies but something about this story made me feel like there is nothing wrong with having "animal children" in our lives.

I will never actually view them as actual children, dress them in outfits or talk to them in baby talk but they are important members of our family and I love them dearly. They may be the closest thing I ever have to children. As a fellow animal lover, I suspect my mom views our pets as her grandpets as she always asks about them when we talk and gets them gifts at Christmas time. I even suspect she views her dogs as my sisters and brothers - giving me gifts and cards from them.

I really loved this story because it sort of confirms a shift in society that has made this an acceptable and more common experience. One that doesn't set me up for too much judgement from others. It felt like an affirmation.

Do you have "pet children"? Do your parents or in-laws see it that way too?