Parental Craziness

[Slim]

I'm 46 years old and my parents still give me grief about the snakes. Trust me, that part of it never goes away. The difference is that I don't live with them, so I don't have to care. It's a different deal when you live under their roof.

My advise, limit the collection to what you have now, wait to breed, and finish school.

[kevinb]

That sounds kinda like how me and my mom were. I got a baby 11' pastel male and she was fine with it and didn't really care as long as she didn't see it and my garter. So I told her I was getting another, a breeder male mojave which I guess she wasn't listening to me at the time about it being larger than the baby. I wasn't living with my parents at the time, but at my gfs, and I would just came home every few days to clean and fed. I got a text from her at like 11 one night with a huge bold lettered rant about all my snakes needing to be gone because on how big my one male was, there was no debate that they needed to be gone by Friday (it was Wednesday) and she was so disgusted by seeing it that she almost threw up. I guess I wasn't clear on the mojaves size, but to me a full grown male bp isn't that big...to her it was going to escape in the night and strangle her (her words). So I unfortunately had to sell my bps for the time being, I was sad but ill have some again. I was hoping to have some this year, but me and my gf decided not to move out of her moms house until we finish our 2 years for our associates in nursing. By then we will be making quite a bit of money and will have our own dream house made. I get the second story of the garage as my man cave, along with the basement for extra space.

It sucks to have to give up what you love, and I hate seeing everyones pics on here of their gorgeous snakes, but if all I have to wait is 3ish years....judging a typical persons average lifespan, that's not that long. Plus ill be more financially stable and able to buy more than just base morphs.

Hang in there man, things do get better!

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[mattchibi]

Thanks everyone for the replies and stories, really!

To answer some of your questions, I actually support myself financially and have been for a few years. I work as a lifeguard/swimming instructor and I pay for my own tuition. I pay for my own spending. I pay for anything that is snake related. Pretty much I can say confidently that I havent taken money from them in two years, except heres the catch, Im 20 and they arent making me pay rent. I am really thankful for that because it gives me time to get ready to move out at my own pace. I already have a plan in two years of renting my parents spare apartment, which has a small walk in closet perfect for ball pythons, and a roomate who I have been friends with since grade 6 and owns a snake himself. So as much as I love the snakes, I realized that it would be really stupid to drop everything in my life for them and I thank you guys for showing me that, I was just so angry when it happened last night.

As for breeding, I am definitely going to hold off until I move out. Hopefully my parents will be okay with me keeping these five, I can be pretty persuasive when I have a good argument and my parents arent the most irrational people in the world. And I agree, I'll have some pretty big females in two or three years from now so thats definitely a plus. If they really need me to get rid of them, then I think I would do it but it would be hard.

[angllady2]

That sounds like a good plan. Sit down with them and say, "Look, I admit I wasn't seeing things clearly at first, but I realized I was being selfish and spoiled and I feel bad about it. What if I agree to only keep the ones I have for now ? No buying more, no breeding until I am out on my own? Does that sound reasonable ?"

As a parent, I can just about promise you if you tell them you were wrong and they were right, they will be so surprised and delighted they won't care two figs if you keep the snakes you have now.

And truthfully, those two years will fly by as you watch your babies grow.

Gale

[SpencerShanks]

That sounds like a good plan. Sit down with them and say, "Look, I admit I wasn't seeing things clearly at first, but I realized I was being selfish and spoiled and I feel bad about it. What if I agree to only keep the ones I have for now ? No buying more, no breeding until I am out on my own? Does that sound reasonable ?"

This is probably the best thing that you can do.