Another conversation I'm tired of having:

The dog vs. the baby. This is usually on Twitter but there's a lot of dog-hating on Facebook too. Holier than thou moms don't discriminate on which social media they take to with their complaints. 

There are a lot of women out there who insist that having a dog while you have young children is the worst, most overstimulating mistake you can make. 

This discussion pops up every 3-4 weeks like rage bait on the socials. 

My advice:

If you are getting married and are wanting to have a baby right away, maybe don't get a dog. 

If you are pregnant, maybe don't get a dog. 

If you have 4 kids you struggle to handle, maybe don't get a dog. 

But IF you already have a dog before you have a baby, knock it off, suck it up, and welcome to being an adult. I'm so tired of women shaming other women for liking dogs (talk about gross: cats poop in the house, but we're not ready for that conversation I guess because cats are seen as more low-key...)

Our dogs were 4 and 5 when we had Wells. Scout the dog has always been indifferent to children (but he's also indifferent to me) but Jett loved Wells like his own. Same with Sutton. Jett could not get enough. 

My dogs were not more or less work after Wells was born. WELLS was a lot of work. But no one is telling moms not to have kids. We're missing the point here. The kid is the work, the dog is mostly self-sufficient. 

And let me tell you: the fact that I HAD to run my dogs through the fields every day and walk them and get out of bed to feed them, kept me going when I didn't want to leave the house. Do you know how good it was for me and Wells to get out and walk Jett and Scout on trails in Wyoming every day? The fresh air? The exercise? Same in Pittsburgh. People in the northeast generally don't go outside in the winter. The reason everyone is sick and miserable in the winter is because they don't go outside. Dogs get you outside.

It is exactly the same thing here. My kids walk a trail every day so the dogs can run. Find me another 3 year old (with a mom like me who generally hates outside) who is out walking a mile through the fields and woods every day. 

So yeah, if you adopt a pitbull while you're pregnant, maybe you just make perpetually bad decisions anyway, but it never ceases to amaze me that it's always the Christian moms online who shame people for, God forbid, loving having a dog. 

Sutton in a princess dress and wand in hand, if you zoom in there. 

This was 15 degrees on Monday.

My original Conversations I'm Tired of Having was about Halloween, last fall.