Why Pets Are Better Than Children

If you do not have any children, but are planning or considering having one/some, think further if that is really a good decision. Besides the numerous personal benefits of remaining childfree, having a child directly correlates to destroying the Earth. Bottom line, you have children, you contribute to the downfall of our planet. Overpopulation is a serious problem that will lead to widespread hunger, disease, and homelessness in the next few years, and the easiest way to fight it is to stop having children. Sorry for the downer, but it was necessary to get the point across.

The best alternative to having children is getting pets, mainly, a cat or a dog. Having a loving pet is much better than a child. First, you are doing your part in helping keep the Earth alive by helping reduce overpopulation. That should be good enough, but of course it is not. Luckily, there are several reasons for choosing this option. With an animal, you never have to endure any crushing awkwardness or embarrassment. Sure, they may scratch the furniture or pee in the house sometimes, but animals can be trained out of that and other people understand when that happens. Back to the awkwardness; raising a child is incredibly awkward. You have to deal with a lot of weird issues and problems, and you never have to go through that with a pet.

Parents are constantly worried about children; about their safety, health, and happiness. There will always be times when parents are painfully worried about their children, and it is not a good feeling. Why would you want to go through that? You never have to with a pet. The worst you will ever worry about is if it gets lost outside. And let's say the worse happens and your pet runs away. Although the bond between human and animal is strong, it is not strong as human and human, so the pain you will feel will be minimal compared to that if your child ran away.

Time and money are the main reasons, however, that you should consider getting a pet. Comparatively, pets are incredibly cheap. They probably cost only a few thousand dollars over their entire life. Children cost hundreds of thousands over a lifetime. School, food, clothes, toys, miscellaneous; it adds up fast. And what are you paying half a million dollars for? Somebody who you have to drag around with you everywhere, and if you want to leave your house alone, you have to pay forty dollars (babysitter). Somebody who is going to give you hundreds of problems and cause you lots of pain.

I'll get real for a moment. I know that children provide lots of love, and they allow you to live on through someone. Pets can be a surprising source of affection and love, and you can bond to them very heavily. I'll admit it is not the level of a child, but I think in exchange for all that extra money and free time, it is worth it. And why do you need to "live on" through someone? Once you're dead, you're dead. You cannot live on through anything. You may be remembered, but it does not matter. Anyways, you should be able to do something to be remembered by besides having a child; if you cannot do it by yourself, you do not deserve to be remembered. Having a child is the "easy way out" for people, the easy way for them to be successful and be remembered by. Sure you do have to do a lot of work to maintain the child, but it is still simple compared to what else you would need to do. I kind of got off-topic there, but the bottom line is that pets provide everything you need. It's all pros and no cons, all the love without the awkwardness. That's a pretty sweet package, aye?