Please don’t take this as being against kids - I have some of my own. Dogs are just… less stressful.
Asking someone who makes it to 100+ about the secret to a long life is as relevant as asking a lottery winner how they picked their numbers.
George Burns: The secret is whiskey and cigars of course
Exactly. We have a family friend who is 95 and she has smoked a pack a day for the last 80 yeas…
99% of the time it’s a mix of luck and money.
money
it is not a coincidence that windsors are a bunch of inbreds and they still get to live to 100… having money and not having to work helps a lot.
Birthing them was a bitch.
Meh I’m sure I birthed my dachshund and beagle mix and it’s like I don’t remember a thing
I feel like I’d remember my Doberman…maybe the Shiba Inu would have been easier.
Cats.
Rabbits.
I dunno, I’ve been living next to or above people with dogs most of my life and my stress levels are through the roof (and they’re not even my animals). I’m sure the people who own them find them adorable, but I don’t. (Kids or dogs). It was constant dog noise that drove me from my last four apartments and now that I live in a quite large house, I’m still surrounded by dog noise from neighbors who let their dogs stay outside (even in this mucky snow) and bark all day at anything that moves. One of their dogs barks constantly and so far has never stopped once in the five years since I moved in. Other neighbors have called animal control on them but I guess there’s nothing much they can do. All i know is - I’d never own one of those horrid beasts (either kids or dogs).
Sad you had that experience. I only have dogs and can say for sure they need a positive and communicating environment to thrive in. They’re a reflection of me and my wife, our strengths and anxieties, and it helps us heal from our trauma as well.
I have a strong feeling kids would be more complex yet a similar experience
I shouldn’t be so anti-dog I guess, but truly being around the noise has made me go from being an animal lover to a dog hater. I realize it isn’t the dogs’ fault but, the people who don’t do anything to take responsibility for their animals.
With kids it’s just the same thing for me, I have an aversion to loud noise and screaming. Some people seem able to cope but I don’t have any idea how. I have one cat and that’s enough work for me.
Connect with nature. Should be good too. Bring more around where you spend more time.
Regardless of all that, I’m glad you’re happy.
Thanks! I’m in a much happier place now, but the drawback is having no neighbors that are even visible from here. I takes me 15 minutes to drive down the (winding) driveway and unlock the gates to go anywhere, but in a way, it’s worth it. I am on such lovely grounds and this part of the state is relatively hard for other people to afford.
She’s one of the few remaining people to have lived through both world wars
If she hasn’t got kids then how does she know? Had both, kids are better. Don’t listen to the elderly, I thought we’d agreed on that?
