All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.

Henry, Ezra and Jen checking out a wallaby. April 2010. It was delicious.

It's Theme Thursday again, and this week another challenging theme: PET. It's particularly taxing as we don’t have any PETs in our house. There is simply no room, in both a physical as well as a metaphysical sense.

You see, we have small children instead.

Childless couples I know often compare PET ownership to child ownership. Most of them - if not quite equating the relationship - sail very close to the wind in that regard. Having owned a few PETs in my time, and now having racked up a few years of being punished blessed by children; I feel more than certain that the fissure between PET and child is immense.

This got me thinking further. What about the advantages and disadvantages of a PET versus a child? Which is better?

Yesterday evening, and well into the night, Jen and I tagged teamed off with our two children: her with a repetitively vomiting Henry and I with an intermittently wailing Ezra (I know who got the better of that deal). During that spiritually enriching but physically tiring experience, a few things came to me that leads me to conclude that having a PET has plenty of upside...

✓ You can throw your PET outside if it plays up; children have all sorts of legislative protections against that, especially in the colder months.

✓ A PET is significantly less likely to talk back when you’re scolding it (unless it is a parrot).

✓ It is more common to give your PET a flippant, rude and/or silly name than a child (although I do note that this appears to be changing).

✓ Socially, it’s more acceptable to house your PET in a detention centre while you enjoy a carefree holiday than it is a child.

✓ There seems to be less fuss made if you decide you’ve had enough of a PET and choose to give it away through a classified advert than there would be with a child.

✓ Ultimately, there are mechanisms in place that – if you’ve had a gutful of your PET, and you’re sick of it wrecking your stuff, chewing your furniture, keeping you up all night, getting poo all over the place and vomiting all over you – allows you to [ahem] quickly, quietly and [ahem] efficiently, remove the problem for good.