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Originally Posted by scorpiosis37
It's clear from your posts that you're very passionate about becoming responsible and you're making some great strides in that direction. The kinds of responsibilities you're taking on an important step; that said, the kind of chores you do and the way you talk about them sound more adolescent than fully adult. Your parents are paying you to do chores around the house, which is a very common way that teenagers earn allowance. So it's great that you're helping to make it a bit easier on your parents-- you just have a ways to go before you are financially independent by working a job. That's okay; you're getting there. It's just probably not time to get a pet of your own until you are able to fully support yourself (i.e. full time job, your own apartment, disposable income, etc). A pet is a commitment for the lifetime of the pet (10, 15, 20 years) and you have to be sure you can provide a home, food, unforseen medical expenses, care-taking, etc. for all of that time. If you haven't yet been able to keep a job for a year and you can't financially support yourself, you can't really offer that to a pet. You would have to rely on your parents to provide a home and financial support to both you and the pet, so it wouldn't really be "your" pet. If you're looking for animal companionship, why can't you get that from the dog and cat you currently have in the house? Why do you need another pet right now? Maybe getting out of the house more and finding human companionship through activities would help too? I know having your own pet may sound really fun, but it's also a LOT more work than having a family pet. I got my dog when I was 22, right after graduating from college, and I'll be honest and say that I underestimated how much work it would be and how much money it would cost. I love her to pieces, but just this week I spent $300 on a vet bill, $150 on a dog sitter while I was away on a work trip, I often have to duck out of social events to come home and walk/feed her, and I can't ever just spontaneously spend the night at a friend's or go away for the weekend without making arrangements for someone to take care of her. It's almost like having a child. My sister got 2 cats when she was in law school, and she ended up re-homing them (to a close friend) after a couple of years because she realized she wasn't responsible enough yet (she was 26). Just maybe focus on a shorter list of responsibilities at a time-- work on holding a job-- and then maintaining an apartment-- and then having your own pet. You have a lot of years left to have your own pet-- probably several pets. You don't have to rush into it right now; you have two little furry guys at home already to love.
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Thank you to everyone who has responded.
I do want to move out, but obviously I'm not in a position to do so. My parents have offered several suggestions about living on my own. One, my long-time friend may move to San Diego next year and a half and we can be roommates which my parents approve of, and if I can be trained now in the job I have as a caretaker and still stay in this job until then, I can easily find a job in San Diego doing the same thing. In six years, my grandparents may be ready for a caretaker themselves, and my parents said I can work for them in exchange for room and board. And then another option is I can move to Oregon with them, and my mom said if I work hard to save up the money, I can be able to afford a house of my own and still be close to them. But living in California is extremely difficult even for my parents which is why they want to move out of state when they retire, and I'm on board with moving out of state.
I don't know how to make my chores sound more adult. The chores I do are things that would, and I quote, "take days" for my parents to do, and are things that strains them physically, so it's one less burden for them to do and I am happy to do it. I enjoy helping out my loved ones in any way I can, and I am looking for ways to be more responsible to help relieve that burden.
The problem with the pets I have are two things....one, my cat is forced to be outside after she had a turf war with my mom's cat and they peed all over the house. My mom allows her to be in my room at night and she uses the litter box, and I'd like to ask my mom if she can come back in the house again. I didn't like coming home every day this week to an empty house. It made me want a companion who I could come home to. Max I'm not going into. There's a lot going on with Max, but he's coming to the end of his life so my parents and I have been discussing another dog.