Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Worst Nightmare Realized

My "I'd never" list is quite long and covers a WIDE variety of topics. But probably the largest topic it covers is children and the raising of them. I have lots of opinions and lots of ideas on how best to raise a child. Doesn't every person over the age of 30 who does not have a child?  And yet, most of the people that have been in that camp, when they have children, do all of the things that they proclaimed they'd never do. This is what I hear...but I know I'd never be that way....oh wait...there's another one of those!
Let's see....I'd never ignore "sass talk." I'd never let my child's friends spend the night (aren't I nice?). I'd never coddle. I'd never give in after saying "no" already. I'd never.... One of the things that I've always said that I'd never do is have the child's extra curricular activities interfere with the family's normal mode of operation. I've always said that the family unit comes first, not the individual, so any activity would need to fit around the family instead of the family fitting around the activity. It sounds quite noble in my head. I vowed I'd never be a soccer mom. Since I don't have children, the "I'd never" list remains firmly intact. However, we now have Lucy. And at times, I try to objectively look at my behavior toward the dog and realize that if Nate and I did have children my "I'd never" list would be in serious trouble.
I have signed Lucy up for an agility training class. Why? Because she loves socializing with other dogs and it's good for her. Since when does what is good for a dog reign anywhere in my brain? I grew up on a farm. We had an indoor dog and an outdoor dog. We had 17 cats that lived in the barn and we raised all sorts of other animals. Never did the social outlet needs of the animals ever compute in our brains. Ruffles (our miniature schnauzer) was crate trained and she would be in that crate while we were at school/work and all night. We'd let her out when we got home and the socializing we did with her was usually when we let her out of her crate and put her in again. To be fair, Ruffles was my younger brother, Jonathan's, best friend and they'd take 52 mile walks around our 3 acre property quite often. Raggles was the outside dog and we'd greet her and love on her when we were coming or going but other than that, not much in the way of social interaction for Raggles either. As one was the inside dog and the other the outside, I honestly don't even remember them socializing much amongst themselves, either. They seemed happy enough. We didn't sign them up for classes so they could socialize. For that matter, Lucy has Buddy, our cat. Isn't that socialization enough?
Evidently not...for I have signed her up and will pay for her to go to class every Thursday from 7:45-8:45 pm. and I will drive her 30 minutes to class and 30 minutes home and work with her. That's right, people who know me well. This is going to put a definite crimp in my schedule as this will cut into my bed time! And this is for a dog. What in the world would I do for a child????

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