Interspecies Parenting: How Pet Parents Construct Their Roles

Abstract

This qualitative study explores a widespread contemporary family form, the interspecies family, to understand how people who count their cats and dogs as family members describe this process of becoming and maintaining family. We focus on one aspect of interspecies families—pet parenting. We find that even though individuals say their pets are family, not all consider themselves to be parents or engaged in pet parenting. Participants with human children differed somewhat from those without human children, suggesting that family form shapes pet parenting experiences. Childless participants draw heavily from larger cultural narratives surrounding parenting to construct the parent–pet child relationship. Those with younger human children talk about the relationship primarily from a place of difference, while those with older human children construct the relationship in similar ways to childless individuals and emphasize similarities between raising children and pets. This study contributes to the literature on family change and human–animal relationships within households.

We Are Best Friends: Animals in Society

“…Three of the women who previously had shared their household with a companion animal described the problems they had experienced. Contrary to what previous research (Owens and Grauerholz 2018;Owens 2015;Walsh 2009b) has shown about pet parenting as a preparation to become a "real" parent, Beatrice, reflected over the experience in the following way: Even for Eva, who preferred animals to children, a pet could become a burden. She was asked what she enjoyed with her voluntarily childless life and she instantly replied: "To be able to be free" (Eva).…”

“…Only four of the 15 women interviewed disclosed that they actually owned pets and only one expressed what could be interpreted as an evident "petparent" identity (cf. Laurent-Simpson 2017; Owens 2015; Owens and Grauerholz 2018). Instead, about a third of the women wanted to be "petfree" for the same reasons as "childfree", and strongly dissociated themselves from the responsibilities associated with pet parenting.…”

“Why Would You Want a Baby When You Could Have a Dog?” Voluntarily Childless Women’s “Peternal” Feelings, Longing and Ambivalence

“…Only one of the women interviewed expressed what could be interpreted as what in previous research has been defined as a "petparent" identity (Owens 2015;Owens and Grauerholz 2018). Greta expressed that she enjoyed a "special bond" with her two cats and considered them to be the most important in her life.…”

“…People's attitudes towards pets and how and if they bond with companion animals differ greatly, for example due to childhood experiences (Blouin 2012). Studies also show that women generally have more empathetic or positive attitudes toward animals than men, and count pets as family to a higher degree than men (Herzog 2007;Owens and Grauerholz 2018). Research further suggests that women without children in the household are more likely to develop mothering bonds with their pets than women with children (Turner 2001).…”

“…Referring to her cats as her "babies" is a way of drawing on cultural parenting narratives and constructing a childless interspecies family narrative (Owens 2015;Owens and Grauerholz 2018). Comparing her cats to children, and strongly refuting the idea about "only an animal", Greta seemed to oppose the everyday distinction between humans and non-humans in which the parental relationships to animals is minimized and devalued (cf.…”