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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Is a puppy harder to raise than a newborn?

88 replies

KeepCalmLadybird · 15/04/2017 23:37

I had ds around 8 months ago. At the same time my friend got a new puppy. We were texting one day to see how the other one was getting on. She made a comment along the lines of 'a puppy is harder work than a newborn' mainly because of their energy, toilet training etc. I didn't make any comment on it at the time but have thought about it a few times since. I was so tired at the time, emotional and recovering from a traumatic birth and was a bit taken aback.

AIBU to think a newborn is harder than a puppy? I am happy to be told IABU as I've never had a puppy before so don't know what it entails really! I just can't imagine having that newborn fog, all emotions and no sleep with a puppy. Although I guess some babies are easier than others, same with puppies probably.

The reason I have been thinking about it today is because she is due her first baby soon and I just wonder if her mind might change.

OP posts:

user1491572121 · 15/04/2017 23:39

She's either stupid or winding you up. Or both. Of course a newborn is harder. Having a puppy doesn't change your body and mind...having a puppy doesn't suddenly introduce fears for your child's future....I could go on and on.

theymademejoin · 15/04/2017 23:40

She will change her mind. We had 2 disturbed nights with our puppy. I spent 6 months in a stupor work each newborn.

theymademejoin · 15/04/2017 23:40

With not work. Although it was hard work.

SkeletonSkins · 15/04/2017 23:40

A puppy is hard work, and very full on for a short period of time.

A baby is hard work, and very full on, for 18 years.

YANBU. Puppies are hard. Really hard at time! But Babies are harder.

JigglyTuff · 15/04/2017 23:41

Having done both, your friend is talking shite

VilootShesCute · 15/04/2017 23:42

I'd rather clean up newborn poo than puppy shit. I'd also rather cuddle and tend to a newborn than sleeping on the sofa next to a whining baby dog for 3 months. Tiny humans are easier in my opinion and I've done both three times!

DontTouchTheMoustache · 15/04/2017 23:42

Ah, a colleague at work (male) and his wife are expecting their first baby in a few months. I have a DS so he asks me questions sometimes, he was telling me how his dog was a very needy puppy, especially when he was toilet training. He said "it can't be any harder than that having a baby". He was serious. Oh how I laughed.

Movingin2017 · 15/04/2017 23:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

KeepCalmLadybird · 15/04/2017 23:44

I thought she might be....but I didn't like to be one of 'those' people who says 'actually you won't know what's hit you when you have one yourself!' She is actually a lovely, normal friend so I do wonder what came over her that day! I thought it was slightly insensitive seeing as though I could still barely move and ds was so new

OP posts:

Moanyoldcow · 15/04/2017 23:45

Haha! Remind her of that 3 months after her baby has arrived.

My DH and I got a kitten a few years before having DS. I reckon raising a pack of kittens would be easier than DS was.

BastardBloodAndSand · 15/04/2017 23:46

Depends on the dog. If you've got one that pisses and shits everywhere, howls constantly so you can't leave the house and eats the sofa then yes it could be !

SkeletonSkins · 15/04/2017 23:46

I guess it's all relative isn't it. If raising the puppy is the hardest thing she's done, she'll have nothing to compare it to. It would be top of the scale for her.

Once she has her baby of course that scale is highly likely to change....

Moanyoldcow · 15/04/2017 23:47

My DS is 4 and still not sleeping through. Some nights both he and the cat wake us up. I laugh so I don't cry.

Wolfiefan · 15/04/2017 23:49

I had a puppy with separation anxiety. I couldn't leave her long enough to wee without her destroying stuff or crying the house down.
We co slept.
I couldn't leave her and couldn't take her to the shops etc. major stress.
You can put a baby down. It might cry but won't eat through a wall.
You can take your eyes off a baby and it won't eat the dishwasher or shit on the floor.
I found it fucking hard. And I've had two kids.

Keepingupwiththejonesys · 15/04/2017 23:49

Ive got a dog and three children.

Lmao, yeah, so much harder to raise a puppy. Like when you run out of milk and need to pop to the shop. You can just leave your newborn home and get some. Oh and you don't have to wash all the Sicky clothes from a newborn. Those night feeds you have to do with a puppy but definitely not with a newborn.......wait a minute

Original poster

KeepCalmLadybird · 15/04/2017 23:51

Good point skeleton. I just thought it was an odd thing to say since I had just had a baby, like 'oh my life is more difficult than yours'.

I'm not sure why that remark has stuck with me, but I think about it every so often (when I'm up in the night praying for ds to sleep) and wonder what she was thinking. I would say raising a baby was and is the most difficult thing I've ever done, but I've never had a puppy! she probably doesn't even remember saying it so I am probably BU slightly for that alone.

OP posts:

Blackbird82 · 15/04/2017 23:52

I have 5 dogs. Pre child I naively thought that having a baby must surely be in the same league, couldn't be any harder than having dogs.

Stupid, stupid me.

My five dogs are infinitely easier in every sense. I have one child and it's SO challenging. I'd happily add another five dogs to my brood before I had another kid!

SkeletonSkins · 15/04/2017 23:53

We all say stupid shit sometimes. I bet over the next few months she'll think of it again, think what the hell was I talking about, and hope you don't remember because she's embarrassed.

Original poster

KeepCalmLadybird · 15/04/2017 23:54

Fair point Wolfie, but are the emotions not stronger with a baby? When ds was screaming and screaming and screaming one day I had to go into the kitchen so I couldn't hear him and did some washing up while crying into the sink. I felt like the worse mother and that he wasn't happy. So I get the physical effort but maybe the emotions make you more crazy with a new born?

OP posts:

Piehunter · 15/04/2017 23:54

No DC here yet, puppy arrived in Feb last year and there were many tears shed from exhaustion, much poo and wee on the floor despite letting her out every 20 minutes and her sheer level of unrelenting energy. She was put to bed every 2 hours for an hour as she just never stopped unless it was enforced, she cried until she fell asleep and then it started all over again. Me and DH were going to bed by 8.30 because it meant we were unavailable to her upstairs for a bit, she wasn't crying instead of sleeping cos she could see us.. I was getting up in the night and early in the morning to see to her. Yes it's hard but it's hard for like 6 months (mainly...) and I cannot imagine comparing it to a friends newborn baby experience!! Nothing like it! But if it's all you've experienced then I guess it's probably as near as you'll get without having a baby?!

SuperBeagle · 15/04/2017 23:56

Puppies are hard, no doubt, but newborns are harder.

Standing out in the cold during the night so that the puppy could go for a wee was rough (and he didn't house train until he was about 7 months old), and moving everything out of reach so he couldn't chew it was annoying but became second nature in the end.

But that's about the extent of it. Also, at no point did my dog wee or vomit on me, and they've never made me doubt I was being a good mother. Kids have done all of the above.

Changednamesorry · 15/04/2017 23:56

I'd find the puppy harder.
But then....I don't like dogs.

Original poster

KeepCalmLadybird · 15/04/2017 23:57

Yes piehunter I think that's probably why it got me to actually.....that she compared us rather than just saying 'oh I'm so tired, the puppy is hard work.' I really don't underestimate the hard work a puppy is, but just the comparing us both I think is why it irked me.

OP posts:

SuperBeagle · 15/04/2017 23:58

I do have to add: just like some newborns are harder than others, some puppies are harder than others. Most of my puppies have been a dream, and two of my newborns have been a dream. But one of my puppies, and two of my newborns have been exhausting, and exhaustion doesn't discriminate whether it's a baby or a puppy.

SkeletonSkins · 15/04/2017 23:58

I think if you compared one day with a newborn, and one day with a young puppy, everything else aside, they might be similar. But the thing is, the puppy stage is so much shorter and the newborn phase is followed by years more of challenges so overall, over time of course the child is more difficult.

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