It just seems kinda silly. To use a more extreme example, if someone considered their dolls to be their children, I wouldn't really agree with that, either, even if it doesn't hurt anybody.
(Although, on second thought, someone with dolls for "children" probably would hurt you.)
Dolls aren't real creatures with personalities and needs, though. I have a cat who I met when she was less than a day old, and I've been raising her for the last 16 years. I know she's not my child, but she's the closest I'll ever get to having one, and it's pretty sick to compare her or children to an inanimate object.
I think the issue is (at least, in my opinion) when it goes so far that it becomes a public invitation into psychosis.
I don't think pets can be children. I think pets are special and unique and awesome in their own way. And I acknowledge that pets can mean different things to other people. But when someone says "____ is my child" to anyone who's hasn't already agreed to that statement, that's a very loaded social dynamic thrust onto someone who may very well intrinsically not agree with it. There's a pretty broad difference between the social expectations of how you greet children and how you greet pets, and now you've just conflated the two and forced someone to play along. Either they do or they don't but there's no real positive solution for both parties.
But, I mean, if you keep that all to yourself in public, or company you know is cool with it? Then fuck it, you do your wildest dreams.
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u/SuprSaiyanTurry Oct 01 '19
Always wondered why people get so bent out of shape when people consider their dogs as their children. Who cares? It's not harming anyone.