that’d be nice

As I take my girls on the school run, I often see a woman walking in our neighbourhood. She is pushing a pram with her golden retriever trotting along beside her. I see her and I love the image, going for a walk in the morning with baby and a dog. And I think to myself “we should get a dog … that’d be nice”.

When I actually stop and think about this, I know that even if I did have a dog we would not go for peaceful early morning walks with the pram, as most mornings we are rushing out the door. When I actually stop and think about it, I know that a dog is not a good idea in our busy lives right now (maybe one day, hey Mr?). When I actually stop and think about it, that image although beautiful to me is not what would happen in my reality. When I actually stop and think about it, I don’t want a dog right now.

I often find myself looking at the lives of total strangers and thinking “that’d be nice”, or listening to other parents and thinking “I should be doing that”, or visiting homes or blogs or Pinterest and thinking “wouldn’t it be great if I could”.

But often when I really think about these things, I don’t want to do these things at all. They appear great on the outside, but in reality, for various reasons they don’t fit our lives right now, or our parenting ethos, or our plans for the future.

In reality I don’t need a dog. But my friend has fish … maybe that’d be nice …