Mom’s Video Nails Why Parenting A Pet And Parenting A Human Aren't The Same Thing

This video illustrates the differences between pet parenting and human parenting perfectly

Tiffany Jenkins is a mom and the voice behind the blog Juggling The Jenkins. Her Facebook page is full of videos about topics such as addiction recovery, parenting, marriage, and general humor about everyday life. One of her recent clips tackles a topic that’s pretty controversial in the parenting world — parenting a pet versus parenting a human.

And why they’re not at all the same.

She breaks down the big differences in barely over a minute.

The video is titled “When My Friend Tells Me that Having A Dog is the Same as Having Kids” and begins with Jenkins playing both herself and her “friend.” The mom mentions how the kids will go crazy with the coming rain, and the friend agrees.

But the friend’s “kids” are actually her dogs. This prompts the parent of humans to explain why this isn’t a comparison that can really be made.

Because as much as we would love to have them fully contained, it’s probably against the law and definitely not great parenting to put your child in a cage when you need them to stay in one place.

It’s also generally frowned upon to shoo your kids outside when they need to go to the bathroom. Though I would be lying if I didn’t admit that my son often pees behind a bush at our neighbor’s pool along with her little guy so we can avoid wet boy footprints inside of her house, but anyway, it’s definitely not a year-round thing.

Then there’s feeding time, and again, there have been moments where I’ve been tempted to scatter dinner on the floor to occupy my young children (if often ends up there anyway), but usually everyone eats at the table. With utensils. Usually.

And of course, even though our instincts might say otherwise, we have to let our kids sit on the furniture. Pets? Not so much.

Jenkins, whose daughter Chloe starred in the video, tells Scary Mommy her inspiration for making it. “Women who are not moms would jump into the comment sections of my videos and give their parenting advice based on their experience with their dogs. It made me laugh and I thought it would be funny to show the contrast between dogs and kids.”

Naturally, not everyone found it funny. “Lots of people misunderstood the message,” she says. “I never said you can’t love a dog the same as you can a child, or that you can’t ‘consider’ them like a child. I was simply showing the ways that caring for a dog is different than raising a child.”

And that’s exactly it. No one is saying a dog “parent” can’t feel a love for their pet that they see as similar to what a parent feels toward a human child, just that raising the two species carries some pretty significant differences. Jenkins meant to make light of those differences and as someone currently raising a puppy along with two human kids, I got a good laugh out of it. I love my dog like crazy, but he ain’t human. That’s simply a fact.

Moms of pets and moms of humans don’t need to have a battle. It’s all a matter of understanding where the other is coming from, and that both sides will feel different frustrations. But at the end of the day, we all love our kids and want what’s best for them — whether they’re furry or not.