{"id":14628,"date":"2017-05-25T17:11:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T00:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/datemixstaging.wpengine.com\/?p=14628"},"modified":"2021-05-31T13:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T20:28:46","slug":"puppies-new-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/single-life\/puppies-new-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Puppies Are the New Babies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Millennials are unlike any generation that\u2019s come before them. They\u2019re more independent, more cautious about making big decisions, and more likely to delay traditional life milestones. Less and less Millennials are buying houses, getting married, having children, and settling down into lives similar to the ones their parents and grandparents led; they feel less bound to the traditional nuclear family model, and they value flexibility. But while they wait, Millennials are opting for a different kind of parenthood: pet parenthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One stroll through Central Park or one swipe through your Instagram feed gives the illusion that just about everybody in their twenties and thirties has a cat or a dog. <a href=\"https:\/\/thebolditalic.com\/san-francisco-dogs-by-the-numbers-the-bold-italic-san-francisco-dd1b09798142\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco Animal Control and 2010 U.S. Census data report<\/a> that there are more dogs living in San Francisco (about 150,000) than there are people under 18 (about 107,524). But just how many young people are pet owners? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/15\/millennials-picking-pets-over-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to a survey released by Mintel<\/a>, over half of Americans in their thirties have cats, and a whopping three-fourths have dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPets are becoming a replacement for children,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/15\/millennials-picking-pets-over-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said Jen Twenge<\/a>, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University. \u201cThey\u2019re less expensive. You can get one even if you\u2019re not ready to live with someone or get married, and they can still provide companionship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One reason for the phenomenon is money. The cost of raising a pet is significantly less than the cost of raising a child. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.akc.org\/content\/dog-care\/articles\/cost-to-raise-dog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The American Kennel Club estimates<\/a> that the average first-year cost of raising a dog is anywhere between $2,674 and $3,536. On the other hand, according to a 2013 report from the USDA, the average annual cost of raising a child for a two-parent, middle-income family is between $12,800 and $14,970. To a couple considering having a baby, those are compelling figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another reason Millennials opt for pets over children is the freedom and flexibility they afford. Yes, cats and dogs require lots of love and attention, but it doesn\u2019t compare to the constant mind a parent has to pay a child. It\u2019s not that Millennials are against the idea taking responsibility for another living being. They\u2019re still doing it on a smaller scale, just with an animal, not another human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much like they would with a newborn, Millennial pet owners dedicate time to doing their research and finding the best food, toys, and even clothes for their pets. But are puppies and kittens a good \u201csubstitute\u201d for babies? They can certainly help prepare you for parenthood. As a pet owner, you\u2019ll become used to setting schedules, helping them learn survival skills, and providing their basic needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raising a pet and raising a baby are drastically different undertakings. But for young people who aren\u2019t ready to dedicate the time to raising a child, or who find it too financially daunting, a pet is a perfect alternative. Who knows? More and more people might turn to adopting pets before having kids\u2014or instead of having them altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know there are more dogs in San Francisco then people under 18? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":14629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[899],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-single-life"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Puppies Are the New Babies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know that more people are adopting dogs instead of having children? We take a look into this new phenomenon to see what&#039;s really happening.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/single-life\/puppies-new-babies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Puppies Are the New Babies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know that more people are adopting dogs instead of having children? We take a look into this new phenomenon to see what&#039;s really happening.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/single-life\/puppies-new-babies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Date Mix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoosk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-26T00:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-31T20:28:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dq1eylutsoz4u.cloudfront.net\/2017\/05\/25171015\/why-puppies-are-the-new-babies.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Entenman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/elizabenten\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Zoosk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Entenman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Puppies Are the New Babies","description":"Did you know that more people are adopting dogs instead of having children? 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Based in Brooklyn, she's written about a variety of topics related to online dating, love, single life, and relationships. In her spare time, you'll likely find her somewhere Instagramming her dogs! You can find some of her other work at EliteSingles and SilverSingles. Elizabeth has been working with Zoosk to create engaging content to help online daters make meaningful connections and find lasting relationships.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.elizabethentenman.com\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/elizabenten"],"url":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/author\/eentenman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoosk.com\/date-mix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}