'I love my dog MORE than my son'

[RyanT]

 I was honestly expecting this would be one of those 'freak show' stories, you know some double-digit IQ, slappers, who's greatest ambition in life is to get on Big Brother cooing over her handbag dog....

 

Instead you see this seemingly educated, upper middle class woman, managing to remain smug and self-riotous while telling the world just what a neurotic mess she is....

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2794599/i-love-dog-son.html

 

-My son spreads mess around the house. He has to be chided and reminded to do his homework and put away his clothes, or told off for answering back, while my dear, sweet-natured Matilda is always obedient, even-tempered and brimming with affection

 

Everything I do for Matilda results in love and gratitude. Every plate of food is gulped down amid much tail-wagging and excitement; the mere mention of a walk produces yaps of joy and wet doggy kisses.

 

By contrast, no matter how many meals I dream up for William, how many of his clothes I launder or how many times I take him swimming or to after-school clubs, I barely get a word of recognition or thanks.

 

-There is also the fact that she will always be a baby, while my son is growing up and away from me.

 

-I guess a lot of it comes down to a human need to feel wanted and loved, and Matilda gives that in abundance. Children, as they grow older, do not give such physical shows of love to their parents.

 

Where do you even begin...?

 

This idea that children are just there to feed their mothers egos...

After that they're a demanding and ungrateful little burden.

 

(...Until they actually leave home then it's all 'why do you never call/come to visit me'!) 

 

 A meaningful connections with another human being?....no she just wants 'wet doggy kisses'

 

 

And as a single mother, I have to hand William over to his father every other weekend, so my relationship with him is punctuated by periods when he is away from me. Not so with Matilda, who never leaves my side or suffers from divided loyalties.

 

...didn't see that one coming....

 

[amaranth]

I'm not sure what this says about me, but I have always been deeply disturbed by people who claim to love animals more than their fellow human beings. Don't get me wrong, I love and care for animals just as much as the next guy, but when I hear things like this, or people say (I've heard this in real life) that they'd rather save a puppy from getting hit by a tractor-trailer than an infant..it just makes me want to vomit.

[Psychophant]

I was honestly expecting this would be one of those 'freak show' stories, you know some double-digit IQ, slappers, who's greatest ambition in life is to get on Big Brother cooing over her handbag dog....

 

 Wow, I wonder whether delving into the 'freak show' stories says more about your IQ than about the one of those you judge. Wherin exactly is the difference between 99, 100 or 101 IQ points? It is a rethorical question. The answer is provided here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_classification#Variance_in_individual_IQ_classification

 

I'm not sure what this says about me, but I have always been deeply disturbed by people who claim to love animals more than their fellow human beings.

 

Why bro? They are looking for the perfect servant who doesn´t ask for reciprocity.

[In the belly of the beast]

 Wow, I wonder whether delving into the 'freak show' stories says more about your IQ than about the one of those you judge. Wherin exactly is the difference between 99, 100 or 101 IQ points? It is a rethorical question. The answer is provided here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_classification#Variance_in_individual_IQ_classification

 

Why bro? They are looking for the perfect servant who doesn´t ask for reciproximity.

Was the insult towards RyanT really necessary?My interpretation is that it was somewhat surprising to the above poster that a seemingly "successful" woman would be so blase about parading their dysfunction for the world to see in such an obvious manner, which brings to mind "The Jerry Springer Show" more than the sophistry you would expect from a highly dysfunctional individual with some intelligence and education. Personally, it takes a lot more than stories like this to surprise me about anything to do with people these days.  Stories like these are basically the mask of social dysfunction "slipping off" as Britain and other Western societies decline further.

[Dylan Lawrence Moore]

I was continuously treated worse than the dogs by my mother in the household when I was growing up. By the time I was 15 or 16 my mom got a new miniature poodle (named Prissy... yea...) that took an instant disliking to me and did its best to make my time at home even more uncomfortable than it already was. It was loud enough that if it was barking at you you could not hear anything else in the room, and if I was in the room it was barking. Period. Seriously, the voice of this dog was like a cheese grater rubbing against my brain. It would sit outside my door early in the morning after my mom went to work and wake me up barking, bark the instant I walked into the house, and barked whenever I attempted talking to my mom or my step-father. If I attempted to approach it to hold its mouth shut or whatever else, it would run behind a parent and continue barking. The kicker? It was absolutely silent if my mother or step-dad were not home.

 

Whenever this conflict happened, which was multiple times daily, my mother and step-father would either a.) do absolutely nothing and continue to allow the dog to bark at their feet, b.) coddle it, and/or c.) feed it to shut it up. I would then be blamed for inciting the dog and causing such a disturbance in the house. Usually such blaming would be in the form of a screeching banshee (my mother inherited the voice of a banshee), after which the dog would be coddled.

 

Every fucking day it was smeared into my face that any conflict arising between the dog and I would result in the dog being favored.

 

So why are there people who favor the treatment of animals over the treatment of human beings? My guess? It's simply a domination tool to show how much they hate other people, which is ultimately a reflection of how much they hate themselves. 

[RyanT]

Really sorry to hear about that Dylan,

 

I can't even imagine how insulting and humiliating it must be for kids who grow up knowing their parents actually place more value on an animal that their own child....

 

Basically it means their amazing abilities to think, reason and articulate complex ideas, feelings and emotions are worth...nothing? No, what's really impressive is a mut stood on its hind legs giving big 'puppy-dog eyes' then yapping and showering the owner with 'wet doggy kisses' when it gets a treat....

 

So, I think you're quite right in that, we almost always see this behavior framed in the positive, driven by their 'love for animals', while in reality it comes down to a fundamental hatred of people.

[Josh F]

I was once walking into work and right outside I saw this woman kissing her little dressed up doggy on the lips and talking to it like a human being.  My stomach churned.  Meanwhile I am pretty affectionate and loving of animals, especially my own, but the idea that animals come before the humans you love? Blech!  

[MMX2010]

Before listening to FDR, I would've said that her feelings make sense because, biologically, it's easier to love an animal than a fellow human being.

 

Now I say that her feelings happen because she, herself, was never cared for as a child.  And that lack of caring is made much more poignant when she sees her child - (an extension of herself) - as a helpless child. 

[hannahbanana]

It sounds to me that the woman in the OP loves her dog because it gives her unconditional love, even if she isn't deserving of it. She has to do literally nothing except provide its basic needs (food, water, shelter) for it to love her and become completely dependent on her. A human child, on the other hand, requires more than just basic needs being met in order to develop a loving bond. I guess it's just not worth the effort for this woman

[J. D. Stembal]

Dogs are often replacement children so that couples can have a baby and they don't have to learn how to negotiate with children.  I've met more than a few couples in their late twenties or early thirties who live together and own a dog that they take everywhere with them. Maybe it's because Colorado is dog friendly overall, but there is a tangible trend away from having human babies. Infertility could be playing a part in all this, but I doubt it has a significant impact. Have you ever heard, "My husband and I tried to conceive, but we couldn't so we got a dog instead"?

 

The upshot of all this is we are making fewer tax cattle because dogs can't hold jobs.

 

The article is heartbreaking. I don't want to comment specifically on it.

[nathanm]

What?  They actually set up a photo shoot to illustrate how her son is being marginalized?  That is some twisted stuff right there.  I know it comes from one of those celebrity fluff, click-bait, brain-trap sites that makes you feel stupider each second you spend reading any of that stuff, but still that is really bizarre.  If she was childless it would at least be a harmless piece about some woman who is doting on her pets (although it might be upstaged by a more pressing article about how the Pope is Catholic and water is wet.) Is she a celebrity?  Never heard of her and Google doesn't show much.

[Filip S]

How humiliating this must be for poor William... As if the admission wasn't enough - those photos are horrendous. I can barely even read this article - what a disgusting narcissist.

[RyanT]

Is she a celebrity?  Never heard of her and Google doesn't show much.

 

Apparently she's a 'freelance journalist and broadcaster' who occasionally appears as one of those 'talking heads'/pundits on TV/radio. and is also the edition of an online magazine 'parentingsolo'.

 

On her website she claims, 'I have a parenting/family/relationship/education specialism,'

 

Certainly her work for the Mail/Guardian focuses almost excursively on parenting.

 

and it gets worse....

 

''Why DO parents feel guilty about smacking? Beats me''

 

At last I have a comeback the next time I'm glared at in the supermarket for hissing threats of smacked bottoms and slapped legs at my son.

 

Sparing the rod not only spoils the child - and makes him a nightmare for everyone else to endure - but it can also make him less of an achiever in later life.

 

A study in the U.S. has revealed that children who are smacked before the age of six not only perform better at school, but are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than those who have never been physically disciplined. 

 

 

("More than 100 studies have detailed these side effects of spanking, with more than 90 percent agreement among them. There is probably no other aspect of parenting and child behavior where the results are so consistent,"

 

-Murray Straus, founder and co-director of the Family Research Lab and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of New Hampshire.)

 

...How much are we betting she wouldn't even dream of hitting her dog?

[PGP]

I feel really bad for this young chap. Where she talks about "divided loyalties" in the article, the real horror of the situation shows itself. Mindless reproduction by narcissists. 

[J. D. Stembal]

How twisted is feminism! This woman is a single mother who loves her dog and resents her son so much she hits him? Does she club her boy with a rolled up newspaper?

 

 

 

A study in the U.S. has revealed that children who are smacked before the age of six not only perform better at school, but are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than those who have never been physically disciplined.

 

Are you kidding me? I want to vomit on this woman.

[nathanm]

Thanks RyanT.  Wow, it got SOOO much worse. This is like an upscale Jerry Springer show, exploiting dysfunction and putting the worst people on earth on display for our entertainment.  Just read that article, it pretty much speaks for itself.  If you want someone to write parenting articles that excuse every behavior and make parents feel good about themselves regardless, then she's your writer.

 

Yeah, it seems what's lacking here is planning ahead.  Like what Stef has described about taking his daughter to a 'big person' restaurant.  The pro-spankers are all about dealing with the results of NOT doing any planning, of just putting kids into the adult world and wanting them to behave as adults would and then raging and hitting them when they don't.  And worse yet, acting like they are the victims just as much as their kids.

 

Perhaps some humans would be better off if they were 'spayed and neutered' like dogs and cats.  Not actually proposing that of course, but it feels like it would be a good idea.

[Bedouin]

Ironically, she doesn't love her child because she doesn't love her child. Because of her lack of nurture and respect for her child, he is more 'difficult' to deal with, which combined with her inability to parent is a self reinforcing combination.

[A__]

Gross. Subtle things parents say about their kids like, "I wish I could keep them this age" is pretty telling too.

[QueechoFeecho]

I love my dogs more than I love abusive horrible people.