Discrimation for having snakes???

[angie7]

Who else gets this from family? No one is supportive of my dh and I having a snake, let alone 3 of them. We are already talking about adding a fourth (by summer) and they think we are crazy. We are also looking into breeding but that will be a few years from now at least. My brother called me tonite and gave me the third degree for having snakes He thinks it is wrong to have snakes b/c one of my dd's likes mice and rats. Well my other dd asked for a snake?? He went into this big thing about how my other dd likes rats and it's cruel for her to see the snake eat (we haven't fed them yet and we are not planning to let our kids know what they eat yet). Basically he tried to make me feel horrible for even owning a snake b/c it eats rats and my one dd loves them He ended the convo with a snarky comment and "well whatever you want to do I guess but just be careful" We have had a snake before so this isn't something new, but I'm bothered about why this irritates him so??

Ugh! Anyone else?

[CruelHerbie]

Thats ridiculous.. I've never had that happen to me..

[Fallguy]

My family is cool with my having snakes. As soon as the one I just bought gets here, I will have 9 in the house. A few of my friends, however, have told me not to expect them to accept an invitation to the house. They dont have a problem with me having snakes. They just do not care for them, which is ok. To each their own.

[anatess]

Who else gets this from family? No one is supportive of my dh and I having a snake, let alone 3 of them. We are already talking about adding a fourth (by summer) and they think we are crazy. We are also looking into breeding but that will be a few years from now at least. My brother called me tonite and gave me the third degree for having snakes He thinks it is wrong to have snakes b/c one of my dd's likes mice and rats. Well my other dd asked for a snake?? He went into this big thing about how my other dd likes rats and it's cruel for her to see the snake eat (we haven't fed them yet and we are not planning to let our kids know what they eat yet). Basically he tried to make me feel horrible for even owning a snake b/c it eats rats and my one dd loves them He ended the convo with a snarky comment and "well whatever you want to do I guess but just be careful" We have had a snake before so this isn't something new, but I'm bothered about why this irritates him so??

Ugh! Anyone else?

This should get your chin up a little...

My mother called me a child-abuser for keeping snakes in the house with my little children. She wants me to kill the snakes before they kill my kids! No, no, I love my mom. She's great! But, like most people, has this irrational fear of the crawlies. And what else - she would kill a rat if she sees them in the house. I haven't told her yet that I raise rats for the snakes. Hah! No worries, really. I mean even if my mom will not open my emails anymore (I sent her pictures of the snakes with the kids and now she refuses all my emails), I'm hoping that every day that my kids are alive, she'll start getting used to idea and be more tolerant of the hobby.

[Slim]

My parents and my Ex don't like it at all, but my kids are really into it, as is my GF and her girls...the rest of them can pound sand. It's not like I force the snakes on them, and they can stay at my place or choose not too. Doesn't really bother me either way.

[JamieLynn]

Yup, it’s sad to know that a lot of us can not share our passion with our families. My family does not know, I have not spoken to them in 7 years, but my husband's family keeps going on this kick that the snakes are going to escape and kill us or our daughter.

This is going to be the first time I spoke of this situation on here.
Right now our daughter is in the custody of the state, after my husband and I lost our jobs my husband and I got into a fight, when our daughter was at his mother's house. Because of this the state came and took her. One of the biggest claims they are now using against us is the snakes.
"They spent money on snakes when they cannot afford to pay the bills"
We got our tax return, paid all the bills, and then got a few snakes, a new camera, and a new guitar.....never even mentioned the new guitar, or the camera which cost 2X what the snakes did.

As of this moment my snakes are the only thing keeping me going.
I have been trying to dig up all the good things about snakes to take to court next month, but even with some great sites out there, good info is still hard to find.

At least 4-5 X per day I hear "you should kill those nasty things before they kill you or your kids" or "why would you want those" or "that’s nasty, those things are evil"

I will usually say back "I hate cats, THOSE things are Evil"

So yah, there is a lot of snake "racism" going on, and it is hard to deal with, but if you love them you endure and prevail.

[DutchHerp]

My parents and my Ex don't like it at all

That's why she's your Ex!

[anatess]

That's why she's your Ex!

Matt, for a 17-year-old, you're pretty shrewd!

[TooManyToys]

They just don't understand, because of that they look down on it.

[JeffJ]

Who else gets this from family? No one is supportive of my dh and I having a snake, let alone 3 of them. We are already talking about adding a fourth (by summer) and they think we are crazy. We are also looking into breeding but that will be a few years from now at least. My brother called me tonite and gave me the third degree for having snakes He thinks it is wrong to have snakes b/c one of my dd's likes mice and rats. Well my other dd asked for a snake?? He went into this big thing about how my other dd likes rats and it's cruel for her to see the snake eat (we haven't fed them yet and we are not planning to let our kids know what they eat yet). Basically he tried to make me feel horrible for even owning a snake b/c it eats rats and my one dd loves them He ended the convo with a snarky comment and "well whatever you want to do I guess but just be careful" We have had a snake before so this isn't something new, but I'm bothered about why this irritates him so??

Ugh! Anyone else?

My family nor my girlfriends family care. when they stop by some times i have him out and they even hold him.

my mother loves him to bits, but i guess she would since she had a 20.5 ft Burmese Python when she was a little bit older then my age. a breeder gave her to my mother, she needed to be re homed.