Advice on convincing parent to allow a snake

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Lmao! I was exactly like you! My mom wouldn't have it! So I bought a tub from Walmart and an under the tub heater with a hide and stuck the tub under my bed! My ball python loved it! He lived under my bed for a year and thrived there! Of course my mom had no knowledge of this! At one point I had a pastel, clown and butter het clown in their own tubs under my bed! I now have snake racks and a small business and I told my mom everything eventually! Lol But I always love telling people my business started from under my bed! So I always recommend the bed method to kids like you lol Just know she'll probably find out one day!


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Yep that's mature people do, recommending young people to be irresponsible putting the animal in jeopardy and possibly causing issues with the seller if/when the parents find out. Good job

Hopefully as the "owner of a small business" you will never have to be put in such an awkward situation when parents make their kid return the animal he got from you and want a refund.

[Linkin]

Thank you all for responding with your input. I finally got her to actually sit down with me and discuss it, and let me tell her why I thought a snake would be a good pet. Her only argument against it that has stood up after I've talked to her is that she doesn't want to have a snake in her house. Which is something that I don't understand but will have to respect. It was really annoying me that she was making all these excuses as to why a snake wouldn't be a good pet, when I could explain away every one of her points.

Right now the answer is a solid "maybe in a while", which I can deal with. There are some things I need to do first before getting a snake would even be possible, but I asked her now because I didn't want to spend my time and energy preparing for a snake if she was never going to allow one in the first place. I appreciate you guys giving me the idea of taking her somewhere that she could properly see a pet snake, as all she's had experience with are wild bull snakes (which are pretty aggressive). She doesn't understand that not all snakes are like that. She seems a lot more receptive once I told her that a ball python would be unlikely to ever strike at me unless I was threatening it, and that the reasons they have trouble feeding is because it's difficult to get them to strike. The hard part was getting her to listen to me.

And although your stories about having secret snakes are funny to me, I'm afraid that can't happen. She's very... nosy, I guess you could say. She'd probably hate me forever if she found I disrespected her wishes. Her house is also quite small and there's not really any room for me to secretly keep a snake, and since I'm under 18 she has access to all of my bank statements.

Again, thank you for giving me some advice, I appreciate all of it. :^)

[predatorkeeper87]

I applaud the fact you didn't listen to the people telling you to hide it in your room. Good on you for handling the situation and your mother's rules respectfully.

[Craiga 01453]

I think you handled that well. You gave it a good effort, but in the end you're respecting your mother's wishes.

Trust me, time flies. Before you know it you'll be on your own in this big, amazing world. If you still want a snake in a few years once you have your own place, then maybe the time will be right. Once you have the place to keep a snake, and the resources to buy/maintain the animal and it's enclosure/setup plus a little extra put aside for the surprise vet bill you'll make a great snake keeper.

I hope you stick around the forum in the meantime, there are some great people on here and plenty of great information and learning material. Just because you can't have a snake yet doesn't mean you can't learn until then.

Lastly, great job shooting down the advice of the "adults" on here trying to advise you to sneak the animal into your mother's home against her wishes. These are the people whose advice you should simply disregard, they clearly aren't here to help you or any potential animals you choose to keep (when the time is right).
You've already showed you're more mature than them. Keep doing what you're doing, you'll make a great snake keeper one day!

[Bmocken]

Good choice! Much better then I did as a teen.

[Mike17]

Maybe pester her about it for a few months

HAHAHA!!!!! I hope my kids never get this kind of advice, for their own good LOL!!!



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[rock]

Thank you all for responding with your input. I finally got her to actually sit down with me and discuss it, and let me tell her why I thought a snake would be a good pet. Her only argument against it that has stood up after I've talked to her is that she doesn't want to have a snake in her house. Which is something that I don't understand but will have to respect. It was really annoying me that she was making all these excuses as to why a snake wouldn't be a good pet, when I could explain away every one of her points.

Right now the answer is a solid "maybe in a while", which I can deal with. There are some things I need to do first before getting a snake would even be possible, but I asked her now because I didn't want to spend my time and energy preparing for a snake if she was never going to allow one in the first place. I appreciate you guys giving me the idea of taking her somewhere that she could properly see a pet snake, as all she's had experience with are wild bull snakes (which are pretty aggressive). She doesn't understand that not all snakes are like that. She seems a lot more receptive once I told her that a ball python would be unlikely to ever strike at me unless I was threatening it, and that the reasons they have trouble feeding is because it's difficult to get them to strike. The hard part was getting her to listen to me.

And although your stories about having secret snakes are funny to me, I'm afraid that can't happen. She's very... nosy, I guess you could say. She'd probably hate me forever if she found I disrespected her wishes. Her house is also quite small and there's not really any room for me to secretly keep a snake, and since I'm under 18 she has access to all of my bank statements.

Again, thank you for giving me some advice, I appreciate all of it. :^)

You also learned a valuable lesson here that you might have already known. Sometimes people give reasons/excuses that are not really at the heart of why they are rejecting an idea. This comes into play when dealing with customers or in business negotiations, etc... Sometimes your ability to present new facts and information or listening to the objections properly will get you to a sale/closing of a deal or a polite follow up at a later date that also gets you to a positive outcome.

Either way, building bridges instead of burning them is a skill that will serve you well in life!