No Dog in the House: Husband and Kids All Failed to Pass Mom’s Pet Responsibility Test

Imagine a mom not allowing her family to adopt a pet. Isn’t that harsh?

Some people may think so. In fact, her own parents were surprised and disappointed with her after learning about her decision to prohibit dogs in her house.

But don’t be so quick to judge this mom, who wrote about her family’s story on Reddit’s r/AmItheA–hole forum. She’s learned her lesson well from other people’s experiences.

Here’s her post under the handle u/SeaworthinessOwn9590: “Before we got married and had kids, my husband and I agreed that all big decisions required two yes or no votes. Well, our two oldest kids and my husband want a dog. I do not. I have heard too many horror stories about a family getting a pet and then the person who did not want it being stuck caring for it.”

But they were able to make her agree, but under three conditions: “One, smaller than sixty pounds, we do not need a mastiff. Two, a non-shedding dog only. None of us are allergic, I just don’t want extra work. Three, for sixty days in a row, they had to collect all the garbage from all the trash cans in the house and put it in the big garbage bin. That was to make sure they would remember to feed a dog every day. And for sixty days, they, all three of them, had to go for a one-mile walk twice a day. With the GPS route tracker active. If they missed a day, they had to start over.”

The result? Her family was able to endure it for only two weeks. Yet, that was not the end of the contention, because this time, her parents phoned, and they called OP’s conditions petty and ridiculous.

OP’s answer? She wrote, “I 100% agreed with them. But since they always side with the kids, I was ready for them. I sent them a link for a dog-walking service in my area. It is very reasonable. I said if they wanted a say in the dog decision, they had to agree to set up an account with that company and that I could call up the company for help whenever their precious, perfect, grandchildren and son-in-law forgot to take care of the dog.”

Her parents’ answer? They told her that she was a jerk and that they had a right to express their opinion. Again, OP agreed, but unless they approve of her proposed arrangement with the dog service, their opinion would not matter.

What happened next was that her husband realized that their kids were not really ready for pet responsibility. He told OP that they should both inform the kids. But OP’s response to this was no. It was he who should tell them because it was he who had sided with their kids.

The result? OP’s last words on her post are, “He thinks I’m being a d-ck. No one has called me an a-hole but that’s only because they say it in much more polite terms.”

Funny and witty. Definitely NTA and a really smart mom.