A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Wit and wisdom, some smart assery, and a Mother and Daughter questioning “Are we even related?”
A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Why Some People Are Trading Cribs for Kennels in Today's World S:1E:30
A boomer and a Gen Xer walk into a bar... and end up debating whether fur babies or human babies make more sense in today's world. Jane (the boomer) and her daughter Bobbi Joy bring their characteristic wit and occasional smart-assery to one of the most polarizing topics in modern family planning: pets versus kids.
Jane kicks things off by questioning the growing trend of "anthropomorphism" – people who treat their pets like human children by pushing them in strollers or dressing them in elaborate outfits. As the owner of two Rhodesian Ridgebacks who "run hellbent for leather" on her rural property, she finds these practices puzzling, if not downright ridiculous. Meanwhile, Bobbi Joy approaches the topic from a different angle, exploring why more young adults are consciously choosing pets over parenthood.
Their conversation cuts through the standard arguments with refreshing honesty. From the financial realities (pets don't need college funds or cars) to emotional benefits (unconditional love without teenage attitude), they dissect the practical differences between raising animals versus humans. When Bobbi points out that only 9% of rental properties allow pets without significant restrictions, she asks the uncomfortable question: "Have you seen what little kids do to rentals?"
Whether you're a dedicated pet parent who treats your dog like royalty or a harried human parent wondering if you should have gotten a goldfish instead, this conversation will make you laugh while considering the changing nature of family in contemporary society. Join us for this thought-provoking, occasionally irreverent discussion – and please share your own thoughts by emailing boomerandgenxer@gmail.com!
email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com
Welcome everyone to today's show. A boomer and a Gen Xer walk into a bar, coming to you from Half Rabbit Hole Studio, Half Rabbit Run Studio, where you, as a listener, will experience some wit and wisdom, some smart assery and a mother and daughter questioning. Are we even related? My name is Bobbi Joy and my co-host is my mom, Jane, and we are here to entertain you for a little bit. And I say half rabbit run and half rabbit hole because our tech guy is not even here with us and it has just run amok. It has.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, man crazy. We don't realize how much we need him until he's not here.
Speaker 1:At the very least he sits between us.
Speaker 2:Yes, and keeps us from killing each other most times. What's our topic for today, Bobby? We've talked about several and we've gotten some ideas from some of our listeners. What's our topic today?
Speaker 1:Today we're going to do kind of a fun one, but I think that we kind of took it two different ways. So today we're going to talk about pets versus kids.
Speaker 2:Pets versus kids. You mean we have a choice? Because if that were the case, I'd have traded you for a dog or a cat a long time ago.
Speaker 1:Well, we know that, ain't true? You're too clean for that.
Speaker 2:So what was it we're going to talk about?
Speaker 1:Well, I P, well I children or pets, and children or or like you know which would win in the battle dome? I guess, no, no, no, I see, when we were talking about this, you know, we we had. We don't really talk a lot beforehand before we record our shows, but you had mentioned something along the lines of, um, I think it was like people treating their kids like, or their pets like kids, treating their kids like pets.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a word for that, by the way.
Speaker 2:There's a word for that, yeah, anthropomorphism. I learned that word a long time ago. Oh my gosh. Thank you for tapping in there, Dr Domain. I don't think I could even say it, just trying to raise the intelligence level a little see he's far away.
Speaker 1:He can't get slapped right now yeah, keep trying, keep trying.
Speaker 2:Well, the reason that I had mentioned it to you is because periodically I will see something that I feel is sheer silliness is when somebody is pushing a dog or a cat around in a stroller, or they are dressing their animals up in clothing or they are you know how do I say this without it being very distasteful, I guess I won't they're kind of sharing their food out of both you know their mouth and their animal animals mouth at the same time. It's kind of it grosses me out and sometimes I just think holy moly, you know that's a pet and they lick their butts well, I mean, like with the stroller thing, I could see it, you know, with like older pets, things like that.
Speaker 1:but let's be honest, I eight, nine-year-old kids in strollers, like why the hell are we doing that?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a good point too. But I guess I just feel like some people even will talk to me about you know what I feed my dogs? Because I have two Rhodesian Ridgebacks and they run hellbent for leather. On our properties we have timber, we have ponds, we have all kinds of things here and those dogs will. And if anybody is familiar with Rhodesian Ridgebacks, they were bred to hunt large animals like lions and things like that. And these dogs are strong. I mean, they will take down a coyote pretty easily, they'll take down a deer and they have, and they've drug them around the yard pretty proudly. But you know, so my dogs have been exposed to quite a bit and they've been torn up and you know they come back with their, with their finds and their gifts for me.
Speaker 1:but you know, but they eat pretty well because they're eating the deer, they're eating the.
Speaker 2:You know what they catch, and well, they kind of chew on it a little bit. They'll chew on the bones. But my dogs do eat pretty well and I've had somebody look at me before and talk to me about you know well I wouldn't give my dog a hot dog or I wouldn't give my dog this or that. I want my dog to have you know really good food. And I think are we serious here? Cause I've seen you what you feed your fat little kids and they're down and they're hot dogs and brats and you know crappy cheeseburgers and all that stuff. And now you're worried about your dog might have a heart attack or something.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, my dog eats cat poop too, so I don't think that she's that that particular in exactly what goes in her mouth, as long as she gets it.
Speaker 2:Well, I just sometimes. I just think, you know, people look at their animals and they seem to be a little bit more, I don't know, interested or concerned about how they treat their pets, and they do their own kids, and you know, I guess I'd kind of like to know what our listeners think. But, bobby, how do you feel about it? I mean, would you ever put your dog, your dog's, a hundred pounds? Would you ever put your dog in a wagon or something and pull it?
Speaker 1:I don't think I could get her into the wagon if she wasn't willing to go. No, I, I, I prefer the large breed dogs, dogs I do see a lot of people, you know, with the. We've put a hoodie on her, you know, when it was really cold when she was a puppy and stuff like that when she had to go outside.
Speaker 1:But I mean, you have carhartt coats for your dogs yes, I do I do, because you know it gets 30 below here, 30 below factors and seeing when we were, when we were doing this topic, thinking like which would you rather have, pets or kids? And so I got this whole list of shit like why we don't want kids, we want pets.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about that too, because I think that's a great segue into the rest of this, because I think that's a great segue into the rest of this. So there are a lot of young people today who are choosing to have pets as opposed to having children. Or we have people who are waiting a lot longer in their life to have children 30s and 40s to have their children and there are a lot of people now who are just saying, hey, I don't even want kids. So you know that that's a great segue into that. So let's talk about that for just a minute, because I've already kind of bashed people who dress their dogs up or their cats up or who push them around in a in a stroller. And let me tell you why that bothers me to push them around in a stroller. If it's that hot outside or your dog is too old, leave it at home, ok, because they'd rather be in the air conditioner, air conditioning, laying on the sofa or laying in your bed.
Speaker 1:Leave that dog at home. You don't need to push them around in a stroller. Maybe my dog is old and they want to chase the mailman. I'll put it in the stroller and chase the mailman with it. I mean, why not?
Speaker 2:you know, bobby, give me a break. You know, the other day my neighbors uh complained because they said my dogs were chasing the mailman on or were chasing people on bicycles. And I said my dogs don't even have bicycles they don't know how to ride what are you talking about um?
Speaker 2:but let's get back to this. Yeah, I don't agree with it. Um, when you kids were little and even when the grandkids were little, I don't care what age they were uh, if we were going somewhere where they could walk, I wanted them to walk. You know why? I wanted you worn out so that you'd take a nap and you'd sleep at night. Plus, you got that exercise. It's the same way with the dog. I don't like to see dogs down at farmer's markets and things like that. When it's 100 degrees outside, I just don't like them down there anyway because people are running into them. There's nothing fun about a dog down there on the bottom, where they're, you know, sniffing butts and can't see a whole lot, and they're getting stepped on and I just don't like that, but there's no fun for bringing kids down there either.
Speaker 1:I don't want to take my kids to the farmer's market when they're little. That's a pain in the ass. It kind of, is it really?
Speaker 2:is and people think that kids enjoy that and it's like what? Maybe you're enjoying it, but I don't know that those kids are, so I guess.
Speaker 1:I can see where people you know nowadays, and even you know back into my generation, they don't want kids. You know they don't. They don't want kids, they don't want to have to deal with them. So they get pets. And it's kind of sad because you know, even in like, let's say, the housing market, let's say you need a rental property, only like 9% of rentals allow companion animals without limitations. And I'm like are you kidding me? Have you seen what these little kids have done to rentals? And you're not going to let my 10-year-old dog that can't do anything in this rental? Well, how?
Speaker 2:do you feel about the argument that pets provide unwavering loyalty and affection? That's incredibly comforting to a lot of people. You know you come home and your dog's tail's going to wag. You come home to some kids and they're pretty demanding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally agree. I mean, listen, I'm going to start this by saying I absolutely love all of my children and I don't regret having them. And you know, if I had it to do over I would still have my children. But I totally get not having children and having pets. I just I mean there's just there's a slew of reasons. I mean you know everything from you. Look at a little kid, and they're going to be 18 before they can really go out on their own and do anything. A dog you spend a few weeks potty training it and that's over with Good to go.
Speaker 2:You know they're full grown by the time they're a year old and mostly trained.
Speaker 1:You spend a few weeks potty training it and that's over with good to go. You know good to go like careful grown by the time they're a year old and and mostly trained. If you work with them and kids by the time they're a year old, they can't do nothing well, there are some pros to having pets um, I found more pros to having pets than to having kids.
Speaker 2:I did too when I was looking at this. So it you know pets have shown to reduce stress and improve some mental health and that's because you know it helps. They help to lower your blood pressure. They even combat loneliness and depression for quite a few people. And I will say, you know, before I had Dr Domain in my life and in between any relationships, my pets, my dogs, were my companionship. I mean, I would come home and I knew they were here and they're great protectors or great watchdogs and they definitely will attack if somebody came into the house are great watchdogs and and they definitely will attack if somebody came into the house.
Speaker 1:So with your cat, though, you used to have that cat vinny, and he would attack anybody. I mean, it didn't matter, that was the best protection I've ever seen in an animal he was an ass ass cat, wasn't he I?
Speaker 2:mean I loved him, though he was so funny, because I gotta tell people this. So, vinny, he was a big cat, he was like 13 pounds and he was a big cat. He was like 13 pounds and he was a big cat and Vinny ruled the roost. There was no question about it. And when the grandkids were little I remember Corey, your, your son I remember Corey wouldn't even walk through the door to the living room because Vinny would come out and he would jump on him and bite him.
Speaker 2:And even though the cat is really playing, he was kind of an ass cat though he was I remember cory saying grandma, he's in, he's by the doorway, and I'd go, cory, just walk through the doorway and don't look at him, don't make eye cat contact with him. Okay, do not look at him, just walk through there and he'd go. No, grandma, last time I did that, he bit me anyway and I'd go, corey, just buck up, just walk through there and don't worry about it, and just just, you know, walk through and don't make eye contact with him. And every single time I would talk Corey into going through and that cat would attack him every single time. Oh my gosh, it was so funny and I know people go well, that cat should have been put down. Oh no, we loved him. Yeah, we loved him. And and vinny was just, he was an ass cat, but he was so funny and we knew that he was. You know, we knew he was playing, he was just a rough, rough cat well, let's talk some other points.
Speaker 1:I mean, since we both have so many points on, uh, let's talk about, you know, pets versus kids, because I there's a lot of good talking points on this, on why people want to have pets, you know. And and number one, yeah, they're a commitment.
Speaker 2:Pets are a commitment, but not for as long as kids well, that's true, because some kids are still in their parents basements. At 40 years old, cat or the dog's not gonna live right, unless you have a parent named Clyde.
Speaker 2:That well, that's forever that's true because parrots and cockatoos and cockatiels and those big birds, they do live a long time. So pets know, even though we have to feed them, they have to go get shots, we have all of that going on with them. They are really kind of a lower financial and time commitment for us because they don't have to have constant, you know, just constant attention.
Speaker 1:And there's no diapers. Well, mostly there's no diapers. There's no college, there's no cars, there's no diapers, there's no college, there's no cars, there's no prom.
Speaker 2:There's no bailing them out of jail.
Speaker 1:But you don't do that anyway.
Speaker 2:No, I never did. Of course, your kids never ended up in jail, but thank God for that.
Speaker 1:Like you know pets they can be left alone after a year. Try doing that with a little kid. Try leaving a one-year-old home alone all day while you go to work. They can be left alone after a year.
Speaker 2:Try doing that with a little kid. Try leaving a one-year-old home alone all day while you go to work. They don't like that. I did do that and I got arrested for it. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding, Never did do that.
Speaker 1:There are some cons to having pets, though, what do you think some of the cons are? Well, like I mentioned earlier, if you're trying to find a place to live, that's a rental they're very discriminatory against pets.
Speaker 2:They do charge you a lot more to have a pet.
Speaker 1:If they allow it at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if they allow it at all, that's true. What about the lifespan? I mean going through a life with a cat or a dog that's heart-wrenching. To lose a fur baby, I mean it really and truly is, and it doesn't matter if it's a horse, a dog, a cat, whatever it is, it's hard to lose.
Speaker 1:It is, it is, and it breaks me apart every time but you know that you're not going to have that pet for your entire life. I mean, you know that, you know the lifespan, you know you know what's expected and things like that. And I honestly, I think it makes it easier to have a pet versus a kid, because and I know this sounds, I know this sounds morbid, but you know, you got a kid, you got a kid for life. You got a pet. You got a pet for their life, you know so true, that is true.
Speaker 1:In 10, 20 years. You know that most likely that pet's going to have moved on and you know passed away and things like that.
Speaker 2:Over the rainbow bridge or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, with pets you can humanely put them down. Yeah, you can't. You can't euthanize a person. Not here, anyway, not here.
Speaker 2:You're going to go to go to prison. There are, there are some limitations when I think about having my pets, because I do travel a lot. Uh, we do go, you know, back and forth to georgia because we have the two homes and they're for the longest time when I would take a trip, and some of my trips were long, even when I was working, you know I I had to go out of the country a lot. It's costly, it is so costly to board an animal. You know, for my two dogs, 10 days of boarding would easily reach seven, eight, nine hundred dollars.
Speaker 1:So you're talking about triple that for a kid to board them. Well, you know, if you, if you had to find somebody to watch a child that was not able to stay on their own, I mean it would be triple that for a trip. And you know, down in Georgia, you guys, you know, have the house and everything. Now pets are portable. You know, you can stick a cat on your dashboard and drive down there, you can stick the dogs in the back of the truck or, you know, in the cab of the truck and just go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that is beneficial for us to be able to take the pets. You can take your kids, you take your pets, you know, if you can. We sometimes have had to pay extra to have the pets with us, especially since we've got the motor home we've had to pull in. We have to make sure that it's pet friendly. Um, some of the pros I will say to having children unless you're raising two hellcats like I had to is obviously you've got lifelong relationships right. So possibly, well, we definitely want to out, uh, have our children and grandchildren outlive us. I mean, what? What a horrible, horrible situation that people have gone through that have ever lost, you know, a child or grandchild.
Speaker 1:You went dark with that one. I was just thinking maybe the kid is an asshole and you don't want to have them around you. You know from 25. God, you went dark on that one.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm sorry. I just you know, I just I worry about my kids and grandkids all the time and so you know, of course, maybe I went down the wrong road with that. I don't know dogs to a guy at my age better than I can explain the fact that I have three children.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Like if I go up and I'm like hey, how's it going? Oh, do you have any kids? No, but I have three dogs, that's a lot easier in the dating world than saying, oh yeah, I got, you know 10 kids, type of thing because that guy doesn't want to get strapped with those 10 kids he'll take care of dogs.
Speaker 2:He'll let the dogs out, that's right but he's gonna daddy up on those, on those babies, you know. The other thing is is, you know, one of the pros for having children is really just kind of the watching the personal growth and fulfillment of those kids, unless you, you know, they're drug addicts or you know could go either way.
Speaker 2:Because every parent, or most parents I shouldn't say every parent, but most parents have had those trying times, whether it's with a teenager or a young adolescent, or even, you know, as the kids get older, as you kids got older, you know, I was always fearful, you know. Did you have a job? Are you making your bills? Are you staying out of trouble? Are you staying away from drugs? Are you staying away from alcohol? Are you making good decisions? Those don't go away, and I don't care how old you are, that does not ever go away.
Speaker 1:Okay, but you're making a point to have pets, not kids at this point you were trying to say kids are better than anyone into this whole downward slope, like here we go into the rabbit hole. It's boomer, so I can wander off. Periodically she's wandering, okay. Well, let's talk about this. Listen, in a survival type thing, if, like, let's say, an apocalypse like Mad Max days or zombie apocalypse type thing happens, I don't want kids, I don't want some little kid crying about something. I'd rather have a dog or a cat that could go out and hunt for me type of thing. Even a cat would bring me a bird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, If the dogs go out and drag a deer up'm good with that. I know I can go ahead and skin that and fry that baby instead of mom.
Speaker 1:I'm hungry. Mom, my feet hurt. Mom, when are we gonna stop? Are we there yet?
Speaker 2:so you know, obviously I will say I had my kids at a pretty young age. I uh got married at 17 and and had my first kid at 18. Now, that's not something that I would advocate by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah, but that was back in the day. That was back in the day on the old wilderness farms, you know, where they were marrying their cousins or something.
Speaker 1:That was back when they were settling the West and they needed to reproduce early because the cholera would take them at 30.
Speaker 2:We needed somebody to work the farms now. But one of the things that you know I guess is beneficial for me is I did have my girls young. I didn't have any money when I was young, so I raised them when I was young. I didn't have any money when I was young, so I raised them when I was young and now they're out of the house, of course, and they've got their own kids and now I can travel and do my own thing and and you know, I have the pet, I have the two dogs. So I guess I'm glad I had my kids young. But you mentioned it earlier too is there are people who are waiting to have kids. Yeah, even having kids at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they have pets well, and the benefits to have children in today's world and economy just aren't there anymore yeah, yeah, that's true and you know, I think you know pets give people what they need.
Speaker 2:They want that fundamental security, they want that companionship, they want to be able to give something love and get love back.
Speaker 1:They want to trap an animal inside the house and not let him out and say you have to love me. Yeah, no, my cats want to live with me. Don't let them out of the door. Don't let them out. Don't let them out. Oh my gosh me. Don't let them out of the door.
Speaker 2:Don't let them out oh my gosh, you just let them out. Oh my goodness. But what I was trying to get at was, uh, a lot of people just really, you know, are not having children, and that's okay. You know, back in the day you were kind of and I don't want to say it was frowned upon, but people would ask you when are you going to have kids? When are you going to have kids? When are you going to have kids? Ain't nobody asking, nobody any of that business anymore.
Speaker 1:Nope, I always ask why do you want to have kids? Are you crazy? Would you like mine for a day, just so that you get off of that one.
Speaker 2:Loan a kid for a day, just so that you get off of that one. Lone a kid. Lone a kid, that'll change your mind right there. So we did kind of go off on another tangent there and that was okay. But I'm kind of interested in what our listeners are doing and please don't hate on me if you're dressing the cat or dog up or pushing them around in a stroller. I'm just telling you, I think it's idiotic.
Speaker 1:So don't hate on me for saying that. You know a lot of people get more benefits out of pets than they do kids, and good for them, I'm for it. Round of applause yes.
Speaker 2:We love the kids, we love the grandkids. We have a great time with them. We're so fortunate to have them in our lives. We're very, very blessed in that respect. But we do love our animals too. But I just wanted to say real quick I did, you know, have somebody at one point because I treat my animals as pets. I do not treat them like children. You can call me a fur mama if you want to, but I am a pet owner and I would never put my you know, put a dress on one of my dogs or anything like that.
Speaker 2:They would, they would eat it anyway, but um, I I kind of got chastised a little bit at one point from somebody, because it does get really cold here in iowa in the winter time. And bobby was correct. I have Carhartts for the dogs, carhartt coats. They don't wear them all the time, they wear them when it's extremely cold. And my dogs love to ride in the pickup truck. They do not ride up on the seats. My dogs don't get a ride up there, but they love, love, love riding in the back. And somebody had asked me one time what if they jump out? Well, they'll only do it once, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:And my dogs Same with kids, though They'll only do it once.
Speaker 2:So my dogs love riding in the back and they stay in the back and I never have to worry about them jumping out for any reason. They are very well trained and they love riding in the back. But I did go into a store one day and I want to say it was Bomgars, because they allow dogs in the store, and I had them on leashes, of course, and it was a little chilly, but it wasn't bad. I mean, the dogs rode in the back, you know, to get there and and I don't you know I don't mistreat my dogs by any stretch of the imagination but they did not have coats on.
Speaker 2:And some lady said to me as I walked in, she said that's animal abuse right there, and I didn't know who the hell she was talking to or about and I go what. And she said that's animal abuse. You know, you should have coats on those, those dogs. And I go, it's not, it's not that cold. I mean it wasn't cold, it wasn't like even 30 degrees, it was. You know, it was a nice day and I go what goes, you should have coats on those dogs. That's animal abuse. And I did get angry and I think I said something to the effect of. You know these are farm dogs, they're not frickin' only I use the other word frickin' house cats and just walked away. But you know some people have gotten chastised for leaving their animals in the vehicle and you know you kind of watch out for that right.
Speaker 1:Well yeah, especially when it's hot. I mean, you don't do that kind of crap.
Speaker 2:I mean you wouldn't leave your kid in there. I would be hopeful that you would never leave your kid in there.
Speaker 1:I don't know. There's been a lot of cases of kids leaving their cars.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, oh my goodness you know that's a whole other podcast right there leaving your kids in the car and saying you know, somebody wrote something really stupid like put your left shoe back there. So you remember that.
Speaker 1:Put something important back there. It's not freaking important. Yeah, my kids.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, but I think that's probably all that we have for today. Bobby, we appreciate you joining us here at the Rabbit Hole and Rabbit Run Studio, so be sure to follow us. We look forward to spending time with you each week. We really and truly want you to go in and like us, and if you have any positive feedback for us or a topic, please shoot us a note, drop us an email, just a short email at boomerandjenxer at gmailcom. If you have hate mail, we're not interested in that. We do take good criticism and we're happy to do that, but I think that's it for this week. So until next week, I'm Jane Burt and I'm Bobbi Joy, and you're stuck with us. Peace out Later.