Pets Versus Children

I am a veterinarian and I have cared for an assortment of animals for as long as I can remember, including everything from lizards and tarantulas to birds, dogs, cats and horses. When we found out that we were expecting our first child, I naively assumed that our menagerie of animals (3 dogs, 1 cat and a horse) would equal at least the amount of work of one human baby. After all, how could one single human child be more work than 5 animals who all required grooming, feeding, shelter, attention, medical care and love?

When our daughter was first born, I was smitten because our new human child did indeed seem like much less work than our animal family. She spent most of her days sleeping, eating and was quite cooperative. She did not dig, bark, meow loudly in the middle of the night or have accidents on the floor. She smelled good all of the time (well, most of the time) and did not go outside to roll in the mud.

Though we could not leave our infant daughter out in the yard to play for the day and though the endless nursing sessions took quite a bit more energy than scooping out some dog food or throwing a few flakes of hay to the horse, I felt like my time as an animal owner had adequately prepared me for parenthood. Hey, this was easy!

That was, until the day that I realized that our daughter had become a full-fledged, temper tantrum throwing, sassy, independent-minded, destructive toddler. As most mothers of toddlers and preschoolers know, one day, often overnight, your sweet, agreeable child will turn into a little mischief maker, someone who always wants what they can't have and someone who can throw one heck of a fit when they are upset. My dogs and cat may not always like the fact that they have to wait an extra 20 minutes to eat if we arrive home late, but I have yet to see one of the dogs lay down on the ground, flail and howl in protest. My horse may not want to be ridden on a particular day, but he has yet to scream "No! No" over and over until I give him what he wants.

Yes, I must finally admit that all of the people who told me that a child was more work than a pet were correct. However, there is nothing like receiving the love of a child and the amazing, indescribable feeling of being a mother to a human baby. Yes, even if she occasionally hits, screams, has a tantrum or makes our house look like a tornado hit, she is more special than any dog, cat, horse, more wonderful than words can describe.

Thank you all for reading my entry about the wild and wonderful world of motherhood and please feel free to visit and follow my personal blog, http://austinandrews.blogspot.com/ for more stories about our lives. Cheers!