Mother's/Father's Day With Pets

With Father's Day coming up and after the craziness I witnessed on Mother's Day, I decided to write a post about celebrating Mother's and Father's day as a pet parent.

This image appeared on my Facebook timeline on Mother's Day and I was appalled by many of the inappropriate comments on the photo.

Here are some of those terrible comments (no names mentioned, source here):

"It's an animal, not a child, you are NOT a mother. Pets do NOT count. Sorry." 
"People making their pets out to be the same/equal to human children need to get a grip. Get your own holiday, Mother's Day is taken." 
"No. Do not compare having a pet with raising children. They are not the same thing and never will be. "
"I'm sorry, but I find it utterly ridiculous to even consider saying Happy Mother's Day to someone who only has a four legged mutt or cat. You didn't give birth to the animal, you don't deserve the honor. This day is reserved for mother's who have children. Human children."

I love how some said "sorry" in their posts when they clearly aren't sorry, otherwise, they would not have spewed such nasty things.

First, Mother's Day and Father's Day are lame holidays. You do not need a day to celebrate being a parent. Even the creator herself tried to remove Mother's Day from the calendar:

"The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar." (source)

Father's Day came after Mother's Day with a lot of hardship and one movement tried to combine both into Parent's Day, but that didn't happen (source). In the grand scheme of things you basically have a holiday for the sake of spending and wasting your money away on presents for parents. What, were birthday's not enough?

For the person who says "it's an animal, not a child," well your child is an animal too. We are all animals. Some are furrier than others, some are taller, wider, some bark, meow, cry, etc. So your point is moot.

For the person who said "you didn't give birth to the animal," well not everyone who has children gave birth to them, ever heard of adoption? Surrogacy? And what about dads? They don't give birth either. Just because you did not give birth to it, does not mean it is not your child.

Is it really that big of a deal if someone with pets wants to celebrate on Mother's or Father's day? What is a mother? What is a father? They are people who love and care for their children and many people with pets treat their pets as their children. I know my pets are my babies. I feed them, brush them, play with them, clean up after them, etc, just like you would a child.

Now I won't claim that they are the same as children. Children continue to grow and learn. With a dog, you have a permanent two-year-old and cats are like teenagers. Just because they are different, doesn't mean I love them any less. If anything, I might love my pets more, but most of my experience with kids are ones throwing fits in the store (I work in retail).

However, there is a National Pet Parent's Day and it falls on the last Sunday in April (source). Maybe it's just me, but I don't think this Pet Parent's Day is necessary either. Whatever happened to just celebrating love every day? Why do we need a special day to show we love someone? (You can probably tell I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day either)

In my opinion, every day should be Mother's and/or Father's Day. You should respect and love your parents every day, not just one day a year (unless you had bad parents)!

Who cares if someone with pets wants to celebrate on Mother's and/or Father's day? I think of my pets as children and feel sorry for the animals who have such mean owners that don't think of them the same, they deserve someone who actually loves them like family.

Is someone celebrating being a mom to their dog really harming you on Mother's Day or is someone celebrating being a dad to their cat on Father's Day harming you? I don't think so.

Attribution: Image used in blog post photo does not belong to me and was found on Canva.



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