<p>I am not really serious, but our kids always joke that we love the dogs more than we love them. Our phones have more pictures of the dogs than the kids. The dogs get to go hiking every weekend and out for dinner at our favorite pizza place. The dogs don’t talk back; ok, the kids don’t either anymore, but they use to!</p>
<p>So how do your dogs fit into your family?</p>
<p>Our dog now is happily the main event at our empty nester house 
PS And we wouldn’t have it any other way.</p>
<p>I adore my dog. And the kids know it.</p>
<p>I’m so glad I’m not the only one! We adopted a corgi in January, and we adore her <em>almost</em> as much as DS.</p>
<p>Not really, but my dog loves me more than my kids do :)</p>
<p>My mom always accidentally called me by the dog’s name but not the other way around!</p>
<p>Physicsmom–guilty of the same. Our “boy” dog is often called the same name as our son, by both H AND me. Why does that happen? :)</p>
<p>There are days when I think my dog loves me more than my kids!</p>
<p>We got a black lab at Christmas who is the designated “fourth child” after our third and youngest graduates from HS next spring. She’s like a perpetual 4 or 5 year old. I loved having 4 and 5 year olds. :D</p>
<p>My dog doesn’t give me the headaches that my kids do. And he snuggles nice and likes to be with me all the time.</p>
<p>I love my kids and really like my dog. </p>
<p>I am not confused that my dog is a dog. I spent $120 on her at pet smart today but I am not confused about what she is and how she fits into the family. Although, she really would like to be people and not a dog.</p>
<p>I have two dogs: one is wonderful; the other is not. I do enjoy being able to show favoritism, since I would never do that with my children. It’s kind of fun telling one dog he’s my favorite! </p>
<p>The annoying dog is 11 years old. The good thing is that he sleeps more now! But when he’s awake, boy is he annoying!</p>
<p>I have a year before empty nesthood. I’ll see how I feel then, but my kids are actually pretty delightful. And are WAY better than the annoying dog.</p>
<p>My dog was inherited from a family member who died, and is very high maintenance (unfriendly). Too old to learn new habits when we got her, unfortunately, although we have managed to tame/control the worst of it. I do love her, but nowhere in the universe of how much I love my kids. We had a super friendly dog before the current one, and while I loved her more than the current dog, still a very pale comparison to how I feel about my children.</p>
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<p>Same here. My dog greets me after an absence far more joyously than any human does - including my kids.</p>
<p>I saw some people love their dogs more than other people’s kids. They have the car sticker: “My dog is smarter than your honors student.”</p>
<p>I think , I love children very much.
And love our Dog as Dog.</p>
<p>We have two dogs. They are spoiled rotten. Sometimes we spoil the kids too.</p>
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<p>Ditto. I think we tend to humanize our pets a bit too much.</p>
<p>We have two dogs and obtained them more or less at the same time that two sons went off to college. We adore them, but they don’t come close to filling the space of our absent boys. The dogs are funny, entertaining, loveable, amusing – and also a major pain in the ****. I don’t love them anywhere near as much as my kids – but I can’t imagine not having them, either.</p>
<p>Well, I know this…we have three kids and one dog (our first pet ever!) that we adopted from a rescue group on New Year’s Eve. I have always said that I would love to adopt a child - to be our fourth - and would have no hesitation about child adoption.</p>
<p>I like to think that adopting our dog after never having a pet was God’s way of putting “adoption” into our lives. We’re lucky, doggie is lucky too! :)</p>