LOL Robin I just bet I know which forum you mean to as it also makes me grit my teeth and fight to not go into "mom mode".

Fact of life is some teen-agers (and a lot of supposedly more mature adults) shouldn't own any living thing but do and the poor creature suffers for it.

I do think it's awfully unfair to a pet to be bought though if the parent in the home isn't educated and able to assist whatever the age of the young person. Having a pet to teach responsibility is all well and good but any kid needs back-up. My 11 year old is away on a few days sleep-over, so of course we care for her pet rat for her. How can she learn responsibility if we don't model it?

I think a lot of these younger owners are just left out in the dark that way. Kind of "okay son you get that snake but I'm not dealing with it!" thing. Not fair to the teen and certainly unfair to the snake.

There was a thread on another unnamed forum about a 17 year old with a 3 year old burm he'd had since it was a baby and of course the poor young man was struggling with raising it and providing proper care. Who in heck lets a 14 year old have a big snake like that unless mom or dad has major snake experience!!!! Boy was I biting my tongue.

My own almost 14 year old wants a big spider. For now it's no, until I can get past my own unreasonable fear of larger spiders as I know I would need to help care for it and help him learn to care for it properly and I can't do that if I'm afraid.


~~Jo~~