To think pet owners should stop calling themselves “dog mums” and “cat dads?”

[TheDeftAquaViewer]

It just feels a bit much when people treat their pets as if they’re children. AIBU to think this trend has gone a bit too far?

Pawrent 🤮
Dogs and cats are not young humans in fur suits.

The whole furbabies shtick seems to go with molly-coddling and over-protectivess and anthropomorphising animals who need to be respected for what they are. I can't quite verbalise why it grates so much.

I'm writing this with two dogs asleep on the sofa next to me. I'm not their mum. They're adult members of a predatory species who have great lives and give us a lot of pleasure. But they're not my DC - they've grown up and left home.

No worse than "mumma bear" 🤢

So you consider you DD equal to a dog....how bizarre.

🤣🤣🤣 Oh my gosh, that reminds me of a time in a previous job where one of my coworkers shared a photo of her dog with a birthday party hat on in front of a cake - in the work Teams chat… meant for work stuff! I was like, WTF is wrong with you?

Totally agree!
not sure how we are going to in-force this though.

When I visit DM she always calls out to her dog 'your sister is here'

I find it yuk when people refer to their partner as "Hubby", and offensive when they refer to what, from their posts appears to be an abusive twat that they live with as DH or DP - I love cats, don't refer to myself as a cat mum - but really couldn't be less bothered about someone choosing to use that term
And the one friend who does choose to call herself a "dog mum" has 4 children.

Ha
I refer to my cat as my firstborn child.
My two human children don't seem to mind.

Oh ok, you’re taking the piss.

Phew.

I did call myself foster mum to some of the rescue cats I cared for, but the one I finally adopted is more like a flatmate.

Nothing sad about it though, I’m much happier with cats than I would have been with kids!

I just can't fathom why anyone would give the tiniest of shits about this. My friend couldn't have children and calls her dogs her boys. I'd love to see you say this to her face.

Oh I dunno, there are worse trends.

The trend for sneering at other people over things that don't affect the sneerer one jot for instance.

Why? How exactly does it harm you if other people do this?

It’s not hurting anyone. They can call themselves what they like.
To their dog, they are ‘mum’ or ‘dad’.

My mum always referred to herself as our dog’s Nain (Welsh word for grandmother). We also have friends with kids who refer to their kids’ dogs as granddogs.

I'm a proud dog mum. My pup will never learn to talk but tells me she loves me every day. She's lush

I refer to myself as my dog’s mum. I don’t see the harm in it. It’s not affecting anyone else and is nobody else’s business. It’s also not about replacing human children for me. I have a human child as well.

Agree.

It's very twee and silly, and I don't do it, but YABU really - who's it harming?

"SimpleThings101" Yes, it’s ridiculous.Furbabies this and furbabies that! It is anthropomorphising animals and dehumanising children. Deeply sinister blurring of the lines of species demarcation oddly reminiscent of the fashion for androgyny and all things trans. I can’t abide it

This is right up there with the most ridiculous comments on MN I've ever seen 🤣🤣🤣

I was asked if I was 'mum' to a pet I took the vets. It was a budgie.
My mum calls my dog her granddog, and when I talk to my dog, I refer to myself as mum.
It doesn't hurt anyone, and is a pointless thing to get worked up about.

@TheDeftAquaViewer

I agree. It really grates on me.

It's not fair to animals to disregard their nature and treat them as if they were some kind of really easily amused human. People who do this are projecting their own needs onto animals.

And it's disrespectful to people. We are a separate species.

😆

'Disrespectful to humans.' FFS! This thread is comedy gold! 😂

This is one of those things where I really think, the fact you have the time in your life to think about this and be annoyed about it..I'm almost envious. you need a hobby

Why?

YYY to this.

I've always had a cat in my home. I love cats. Really love them.

I have nothing against dogs. They're not for me.

But cats are not humans, and cat owners are not their parents. I get where simplyhuman (sorry, sp?) is coming from on this. It's very much part of the zeitgeist to blur all formerly well accepted lines, very unthinkingly.