Why won't she let me? :(

[Math]

I really want a set of rats (I'd be happy with just one... but you need two because of how social they are) and my mom says no.

I've provided her with dozens of reasons such as:
- I'd pay for everything
- Take care of them
- Play with them
- And she'd never have to look at them if she chose not to
- She may end up loving them, everyone who I've talked to said their mother ended up loving them... or getting their own rat.

Anyone have some other ways to convince her?

I just wish I could get my own rats... or that I could've stayed dreaming last night because I dreamt that I had rats.


- Math

[TheLeet]

Aww, I'm sorry that she won't let you have rats. Is she maybe scared of them?
I know a lot of people still consider rats to be dirty vermin that carries all sorts of diseases even if it's not true

[YourLoveOnly]

I know how incredibly frustrating this can be..
Unfortunately, there's not much you can do.

I had to wait for over 10 years before my mom changed her mind..
And to be honest, I never expect her to do that.
I was used to bringing it up every once in a while and her saying no.
Imagine my surprise when she said yes.. (I'll be getting 4 guinea pigs, hopefully within the next month!)

[Math]

10 years? o.o That is a -long- time. My maximum waiting time will be 5 years, she says when I go to university and as long as I get permission from dorm buddy (or whatever you call them XD) and headmaster (or whatever you call them) then I can get some. I just can't bring them home. XD Which I'll do... because I bet she'll love them as much as I would.

I think I'll try writing a speech too on how they're the most friendly rodents, and they make great pets. And that they are not dirty vermin, that they are more like cats in terms of self cleaning. (which they are)

My riding instructor has a student who has a rat whom she adores... and my mom heard this as well. I hope that I can at least get her a tad less biased towards rats.

[Math]

According to a user on another site, their tails feel like:

Quote:
Their tails are warm, it is how they release heat to stay cool. It has course hair on it so can feel a little prickly but I actually like they way it feels, lol

That should sway her opinion a little... I hope.

[YourLoveOnly]

It was a looooong time. But I'm sure that the second they'll come home with me I will forget all about that, it was worth waiting for. I'll make a picture thread when they arrive ^^

[Math]

I'm sure they will be well worth the wait, YLO.   I can't wait to see pictures!

I'm going to show my mom the message that the user sent me, and I'm going to make a PowerPoint to show her1

[Math]

I'm almost finished my Powerpoint. Here is the "index":

Slide 1: Just the title with an adorable ratty background
Slide 2: Why I Want a Rat (picture of rat holding a toy saxophone)
Slide 3: Rats Are Not a Dirty Vermin, takes time explaining how clean they are and their tails (picture of a rat grooming itself as background)
Slide 4: Why I Should Get a Rat, explains that I'm responsible and have experience with taking care of pets and that she'd have to take no part in their care (a rat sleeping in the arms of a large teddybear)
Slide 5: Why Two Rats, and Not One, explains why two rats is much better then one. (two buddy rats playing with each other)
Slide 6: What Do Rats Need (Material Wise), explains what they need and how many things are just a one time cost and that I'll be paying for everything (two rats in a hammock)
Slide 7: You'd Love Them Too!, shows quotes from users on PI and how their rat hating parents fell in love with the new additions (picture of a rat cuddling a teddybear)
Slide 8: Rats Can Win Over Anyone's Hearts, explains how friendly they are and how social they are. (background is of a rat licking someone's hand)
Slide 9: Interesting Facts, tells some very interesting facts about rats. (background is a curious looking white black-eyed rat)
Slide 10: Easy to keep Happy, tells some of the games that owners play with their rats (background is a playful rat in a playbow pose!)
Slide 11: Can a Rat Give You a Disease?, talks about how uncommon contagious diseases are in pet rats and that as long as I keep the cage clean, we have nothing to worry about. (picture of a really cute, innocent looking rat!)




How does it sound so far?

[Math]

She said no. And apparently, if I ask one more time... she'll be in the loony bin. Maybe I begged too much?

I'll bring it up again in a week or two. And then again a few weeks after and after Christmas... it's back to convincing.

[YourLoveOnly]

I don't think trying that much will work. I would give it rest for a couple of months, not bring it up at all.. Then try talking to her again. If you are patient enough not to mention it for so long and then still want them, she might be a little more convinced you are taking this serious.

No matter how many good reasons you provide, parents don't like it when their children keep asking the same thing when they already said no.

[Math]

I guess I'll just wait until after Christmas to ask again... then wait until my birthday then until school ends. That's a good waiting period.

[indigowulf]

If you honestly are going to pay for everything yourself, and you can get one when you go to the university, I have an idea.

Talk to your mom first, in a mature, non-beggy way, and reassure her this isnt you going behind her back.

Start buying the things you need to care for rats, 1 item at a time. Buy a waterbottle one month. Buy a wheel the next. save up for a really nice habitat that would make any rat happy, buying it little by little. The only thing you cant buy in advance is food, because even dry food loses nutritional value over time. Most importantly, get instructional books on thier care.

In this way, you can relieve some of your longing by getting ready. Also, you will be showing that you are commited and mature about the issue. Lastly, even if you do have to wait, you'll have the habitat ready to go, and you can afford to get a really nice one set up in that time.

This is how I got my first computer For the longest time, while I was broke, all I had was a mousepad. But I kept looking at it and telling myself, "someday, Ill have a computer to go with that". At least it made me feel better until I could afford it.

[Math]

I've tried in a non-beggy way... it doesn't work. My mom is made of stone. XD I don't see why she'd have a problem with getting two cute little rats. She went behind my Dad's... well, she lied about a kitten so she could bring him home. XD She said there was a starved little kitten wandering around and he said if it came near the house again, she could keep it. Turns out it was a kitten from the local car shop that had food and water readily available.

She already said I can get one in university... though I'm sure maybe I'll get one a few years in advance.

She probably won't let me buy supplies in advance before I have her permission. XD

ETA: Yep, I'm going to be paying for everything, I already have a pretty large amount saved up. I've told her that as well as I'll do everything care wise... she wouldn't have to lift a finger. Still I got a no.

[Luv007]

Do you have other pets?  My mom's reasoning when I was younger was that we already had too many animals.  I tend to adopt things easily.

Starting from when I was born, there was already a dog in the house.  When I was three, we got a female, never intending to breed the two.  She got pregnant pretty quickly and at a young age, but was a wonderful mother to several large litters, never loosing a pup despite her small and delicate size.  We kept one pup.  That puts us at three dogs.

When I was in third grade, I got a guinea pig... but I don't remember how.  He lived for two years before passing on.  We had quite a few fun times with the little guy... who really wasn't ever that little.

When I was in fifth grade, I did a science project in which I made sure gerbils were part of.  I bought five from a pet store and fed them different things.  They misgendered the gerbils and though one of the original five died while I was away, the other four reproduced, two males, two females.  Then those babies reproduced, and their babies reproduced.  We were probably well past the fifth generation of them by the time I found someone that was willing to take a couple.  I would try to give babies to classmates, but few could convince their parents to take them in.  It just became very overwhelming very quickly and we had no responsible way of ending the reproducing.  That was just not a good animal experience, though I learned a lot from it.

In 9th or 10th grade, my brother and sister each got dogs from the same litter.  The pup we had kept from the momma we had was my boy and my parents thought it would be good for my sibling to have dogs like that.  Unfortunately thats not quite how it worked.  My sister's dog is definitely hers, but my brother's dog is my barn dog.  She makes trips around town with me.  She's not very intelligent, or very fit, but when you call, she'll be by your side in a heartbeat.  That is important with horses and hot fences.

When I was in eleventh grade, I was in a pet store when I saw two puppies and asked to hold one.  The little furball took my heart the second she started licking my face.  She was obviously from a family setting and not a breeder.  She was comfortable to be flipped on her back and held like a baby, and actually seemed to prefer that position.  I called my mom and asked her to come see it because there was a chance another family would come back for her soon.  After my brother and sister had gotten their dogs, I had been promised a puppy when I found the right one.  Once my mom held the fluff ball, it was decided she was coming home with us.

Years later, my fluffball became the family mascott and could care less about me.  My own elder dog from the litter when I was 4 passed away and I was heartbroken.  About a year afterwards, I came upon a little chihuahua mix in the pet store that looked almost exactly like my dog that had passed away... except she was miniture, a female, and didn't have a white collar around her neck as he had.  She also had a few less freckles, but freckles nonetheless.  Freckles were my older dog's namesake.  I asked to hold her.  I fell in love.  I came back day after day until I had enough money and they reduced the price for me.  I bought her and took her home and simply kept her in my room with me, in my car with me, or in stores with me constantly.  She spent every waking moment with me.  Eventually she was welcomed into my family, though it took a good six months.  Now she stays at home and I think might even be everyone's favorite.  You can tell I am hers though... She gets so excited when she goes places with me now that she shakes.  I don't live at home anymore, but I see Maggie every week day and we have cuddle time, play time, and begging time.  Begging time is where she shows me all of her new tricks while I try to eat lunch or breakfast peacefully.  Anywho...

Between the last two dogs, I bought a hamster for my sister as a christmas present, fell in love, and kept her for myself... and bought her another.

Then I adopted a hamster from an owner who would take the hamster's food and water and excersize wheel away at night so she could sleep.  As you may know, hamsters are nocturnal... So this was a form of abuse in my way of seeing it.

And my brother, sister, mom, and I jointly 'rescued' a bearded dragon from a pet store.  They didn't have the correct light on him and his bones weren't metabolizing correctly.  The crickets he was being fed were actually eating the scales off of his tail and if he did try to swallow one, he was pass out and go into convulsions that the pet store worker called 'dreaming'.  He was on the verge of death and we just wanted to make it easier on the little guy.  He was extremely lethargic and we thought he would pass in days.  But... with a little help from warm chicken baby food, I got Kier to swallow enough down to help him get enough energy to become interested in food.  He ate silk worms with no problem and is now quite big, though his front right leg will never be usable.  It never developed after the nutrition deprivation he had in the pet store.  It grows, but hangs limp.  He can move it, but the bone is too weak to hold him up.  He now is quite content to eat his veggies as well and has a very healthy appetite.

In between these, I brought home several other dogs and various animals, usually that I could re-home or find their original owners.  I was known for and still am for picking up animals in the street.  I once found my school counselor's dogs in one of the busiest roads in town.  I took them to the vet and they contacted her to come get them.  I ran through the road chasing a Shetland that seemed to be both blind and deaf at one AM in the morning.  I actually stopped a police officer from hitting the dog.  It was delirious and like I said... possibly deaf, blind, or both.  The dog was very sweet, but he was just wandering aimlessly.  I never chase a dog, so I just walked behind him until the police officer stopped and helped me by making a circle around him.  The officer seemed to think it would be better just to leave the dog in the road though... ridiculous.... especially on this road.  Let me just tell you... there was a reason the cop was riding up and down the road.  Anywho, the dogs owners were elderly and out of town.  He had escaped and was picked up soon afterward to go home to his family.  When I was in seventh grade, I saved up a hundred dollars and wrote a note FROM the easter bunny.  I borrowed the puppy I wanted from my next door neighbors with their permission and washed her up and stayed up with her all night.  Then, the next morning before everyone woke up, I added a present to my stack from the easter bunny.  It was a box with a note attached indicating that he had left a hundred dollar bill to take care of puppy cost and that Lacey was my gift that year.  Lacey got upset being by herself and woke up my parents before my brother and sister could see it though.... so my mom told me to take her back to the neighbors.  That was when my outside dogs became inside dogs though... and so it really did accomplish something.

Then of course, I almost forgot the horse.  My mom gave me permission to buy him, but I saved my money over the summer for him and worked/volunteered to get the price knocked down to something I could afford.  He's my baby and priority to this day.

And recently my fiance made the mistake of saying he wanted a puppy, so we went down to the humane society and I picked out TWO dogs to bring home.  My fiance can't stand them to this day, but they really are good dogs.  He just doesn't have the patience to work with a deaf dog and one with emotional issues.  They are my babies.

So overall, my total on animals is 6 dogs, 1 hamster, 1 bearded dragon, 1 horse.  And working on a ferret.  I need to animal populate my fiance's house.  My mom wouldn't let me bring any of the dogs with me.  The horse lives out at a local barn, and the fiance said no reptiles or hamsters.  But he likes ferrets.  Now if I can just convince him that we need one....

I think my point was that if you already have pets, it is a lot harder for a parent to allow you to get more, especially if you have a tendency to let others take care of your pets.  I made that mistake when I was younger, but recovered for it with other animals.

Sometimes it also helps to take your parent into a pet store where there is a knowledgeable person who can allow her to handle a rat and tell her some of the advantages of purchasing one.  I wouldn't do it now, or any time soon.  Holidays are overwhelming, but one day when you are both in a good mood and close to such a pet store, suggest you go in.  Then reintroduce the idea with a rat knowledgeable person at your side to back up your research.  Buying one item at a time might be something to negotiate with your mother as well.  That is an excellent idea if allowed.