It took a total of two years to say "no" to my son when it came to keeping pets.

My son has loved animals since he was a child, and wherever he travels every year, there must be a zoo. Because of his love for animals, when he was almost five years old, he declared that he wanted a dog as a fifth birthday gift.

The word "no" immediately appeared in my heart. The reason is that when I was a child, my father had three dogs, two birds, a tank of goldfish and a tank of tropical fish. My family environment was relatively well-off. My father left early for work and came home late, and my mother loved to play mahjong. The responsibility of taking care of these sea, land and air pets fell on my sister and me.

Before I think of ways to reject him, I first need to find out what kind of dog my son wants to keep?

He held his furry head, which was larger than that of children of the same age, and looked at me confused: "I don't know." I already knew it in my mind. He was fascinated by the warm composition of children and dogs in fairy tale books. Influenced by the saying that dogs are children's best friends, in his little heart, he only wanted a dog as a pet. As for what kind of dog it was and how much time it would take, how could it be considered in his simple little mind.

This is undoubtedly a good opportunity to attack him and object to his keeping a pet: "Look, you don't even know what kind of dog you want to keep, and you are still clamoring for a dog?" These reasonable words will definitely win the battle for parents, but raising children is a life lesson, and the goal is not to win or lose in a fight for space. The ultimate goal is to teach the children well. I don't want him to complain when he grows up: "If my parents hadn't allowed me to keep a dog..." What needs to be done is not that my parents didn't allow me to keep a dog, but that he should decide on his own that "I won't keep a dog."

When it came time to visit the bookstore once a week, Little Maomao came prepared and went straight to the pet books shelf, specifically selecting books about raising dogs. I limited him to buying only one book and went back to study it carefully. When he got home, he immersed himself in reading it, his concentration and seriousness were touching. During holidays, one of his favorite activities is to go to different pet shops and play with various dogs. For this reason, I began to feel conflicted and struggled internally. Should I really let him get a pet dog?

He has decided that what he wants to raise is not a small pet dog such as a Chihuahua or a squirrel dog, but a Siberian Husky as big as a German wolfdog, which has to live in low temperatures for a long time and needs a large space for movement.

It turns out that the son knows the characteristics of sled dogs and has a "solution". He looked at his home and said, "We have enough room for it to move around. If we turn on the air conditioner 24 hours a day, we won't worry about the heat damaging it."

Air conditioning was a luxury when I was a child. When I was a child, I would turn on the electric fan to blow hot air to sleep. When we were tossing and turning in the heat, my mother would take a sunflower fan to cool my sister and me to keep the heat away. She would always recite a mantra: "A calm mind will naturally cool you down." In my son's era, air conditioning has become a necessity, just like running water and gas, which are indispensable home appliances. What he doesn’t know is that he has to pay an electricity bill to use the air conditioner. It’s time to give him the concept of money.

"With 24-hour air conditioning, we have to pay high electricity bills every month. Mom needs time to save some money first." He asked how long it would take to save, and the answer I gave him was one year.

I tried to use soft tactics to induce my son to try to keep other pets, such as goldfish, within this year, but he found it common and refused. One day when he came home from school, he seriously said that he wanted to raise a snake. snake? Although I had a huge "no" in my heart, I remained calm on the outside. He cited three major reasons for raising snakes: first, it is not a big python, but a small snake raised in a glass bottle, which does not take up too much space; second, it is quiet and will not make noise to disturb people; third, it is convenient.

Little Mao Maotou has already seen through the reasons why her mother delayed buying a dog. She was afraid that the dog would take up space in the house, that it would bark noisily, and that she was afraid of taking care of it.

Mom has policies, and Little Maomaotou has countermeasures. The solution at this time is not to violate the taboo and say "no", especially when he has listed three major reasons. Am I falling into the trap of saying "because I don't like snakes"? What are my top three reasons?

I would not destroy the Great Wall, so I promised to take him to the Pet Street to choose a pet snake.

I have had "herpetology phobia" since I was a child. When I see snakes, four-legged snakes, lizards, crocodiles, etc., my legs will become weak and I will get goosebumps all over my body. In order to teach by example, I worked hard to overcome that fear and took my son to choose a snake. My son chose a small snake about 6 inches long, with a body diameter of about 2cm. It squirmed actively in the long conical glass bottle. My whole body was numb when I saw it. My son's eyes lit up when he saw it, and he was extremely excited.

I asked the clerk what the little snake’s feed is? He said: freshly born mice. They have them for sale, and it takes about three days to feed one. The clerk opened the box and showed us the delicacies of newborn mice and snakes whose eyes have not yet opened and whose body is red and has no hair. As for hygienic issues, small snakes will gnaw on the layers of wood bran at the bottom of the bottle. To avoid odor, the wood bran needs to be replaced every day.

I told my son that it would be easy. I would be responsible for buying chaff and mice, and he would be responsible for feeding the snakes and cleaning the bottles. My son hesitated for a while and said that he had a lot of homework and was very busy, so I took full responsibility. I reminded him: This is your pet.

Finally, he made a decision: raise a hamster.