Mum Diary: Would Getting A Puppy Be Crazy?

My house is chaos. Thanks to two young toddlers and two working parents, it’s a sort of never-ending hurricane of laundry, leftovers and Lego bricks. My toddlers are either asleep or generating mess; it’s their only two states.
 
Seriously, it’s almost like a superpower; they can walk through a room and mess will magically appear around them as they go, as if they are the cutest extras in a particularly domestic X-Men movie.

Take Baby Olly - well, Toddler Olly now, I suppose. He is obsessed with emptying things, be they cupboards, bags or bowls of food. Olly will carefully spread the contents of any container he finds across as wide a space as possible, his brow slightly creased as if he is actually doing hard maths.

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Meanwhile Harry likes to go for larger challenges and prefers to empty the entire ball pit over the floor. Parents, if you have not yet bought a ball pit then HEED MY WORDS. This is the best advice I will ever offer: ball pits are a curse. You may see one in the supermarket and think ‘Oh, that’s a good price’, but it won’t just cost you money - it will cost you hours and hours of time. You will spend at least half an hour every single day putting the balls back into the ball pool. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes twice.

So am I completely barking mad for considering adding a puppy to this mix? We are very seriously considering bringing a puppy home later this year, after our holiday later this month.

Now, there are some good reasons not to get a dog with small children. Dangerous breeds, unknown histories, children being unthinkingly cruel. But we have thought about this and planned accordingly.

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Firstly, it will be a breed known for its good temperament (we’re thinking Springer Spaniel, Cocker Spaniel or Cockapoo – a spaniel crossed with a poodle. We’re open to suggestions though). Secondly, it will be a puppy so that we can oversee its socialisation. Thirdly, it will never be left alone with the boys, and we will teach them to respect its food and sleeping area.

And there are so many positives to having a dog. There are good health reasons – early exposure to pet hair has been shown to reduce allergies, while all the extra dirt and germs traipsed in by a hairy pet has been proven to help kick-start children’s immune systems.

Not only that, but walking a dog two or three times a day will ensure that we all spend more time outside, whatever the weather. Research from the University of London suggests that kids with dogs are much more active than children without a dog.

Having a dog in the house will help my boys learn compassion and respect, and encouraging them to help care for it will teach them responsibility. Stroking a dog is shown to be excellent for calming frayed nerves – so there are definite bonuses for me too!

Mostly, I just want to give my children another friend to grow up with. I was a very little child when my family got our first dog – a short-legged, overweight Border Terrier called Poppy. I loved that dog; she was my earliest proper friend.

From acting as a horse for my doll when I was six, to being a discrete confidante when I was 12 and then a good excuse to get out of the house during my rebellious teenage smoking years; Poppy was one of my best friends. I want my children to have that kind of friendship and those happy memories.

But I’d be lying if I said that getting a dog is just for Olly and Harry. I have wanted a dog of my own since Poppy died, but I have never been settled enough. I feel very strongly that a dog should never be left home alone for a full day, or bought on a whim and then ‘rehomed’ when the slightest thing changes. Now that I work from home and we own our own house, I finally feel that I can make the commitment.

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Perhaps it is slightly worrying that I felt ready to make the commitment to have children before I felt ready to get a dog. I’m not sure if that makes me a responsible pet own or an irresponsible parent!

Either way, as a parent and a dog lover I can’t wait to take the plunge. Adding a dog to our family may increase the mess and chaos, but it will also increase the love.