Fox and Parenting

Getting a dog was the best parenting decision I've ever made, which is a fairly low bar considering I second guess almost everything.  Getting a dog was like hitting a grand slam in a championship baseball game, though hitting a grand slam is not a decision.  Getting a dog is more like buying Apple stock in 1985 and holding it: the gains are way bigger than I ever expected.  Fox is a keeper.

The other night, my daughter called our dog the third child.  No, Fox is better than a child, with all due apologies to third-born children.  While I love my daughter and the Boy dearly, they can be difficult children to parent.  That is a nice way to put it.  They aren't horrible, but my daughter is a teenage girl who fits the advertised awful behavior that comes with the demographic.  Self-absorbed doesn't quite cut it.  And the Boy is intense.

I was talking to my neighbor the other day who has daughters a few years older than mine.  I run into her as we walk our dogs, and she very kindly listens to my kvetch about my kids' strong wills, persistence and intensity.

"My kids are the same.  These traits will serve them well in the long run," she said.  "It is just hard to deal with them now."  Agreed.  The hard part for me is staying calm while they are being irrational.  They get irrational, I get irrational, and we have a vicious circle of nonsense.  The dog, meanwhile, is not capable of engaging with me, the kids and our bullshit.  He is calm.  He is cool.  He is chill.  I can learn something from this dog.

In fairness to my kids, we adopted Fox when he was about three.  We missed his puppyhood where he was not housebroken and waking us at odd hours in the night.  Adopting a well behaved three year old dog is like adopting a twenty six year old person who just graduated from medical school.  The hard part is done.

So is Fox better than a child?  He makes no demands, except at 4:00 p.m. he gets a hungry for dinner and he does his "feed me" dance, which is very cute.  My daughter said Fox's life is "Eat. Sleep.  Poop.  Repeat," which is true.  Last night, after the kids were in bed, the dog came and sat with me on the couch.  He didn't want anything.  He didn't whine, ask me for something, or complain about his homework or sibling.  He just sat next to me and snuggled.

I appreciate the dog's easy-going manner, and so do the kids.  Okay, this essay is not landing where  I thought it would land.  I thought I would write something like Dogs teach kids about responsibility and empathy.  True, very true, but not the point.  Bottom Line:  I am glad we got a dog because sometimes Fox is the nicest "person" in the house, including me.  The kids get crabby, I get crabby, and Fox stays Fox.

Yes, getting a dog is the best parenting decision I've ever made.