Backwoodsman: What makes you think you need my approval for anything? I'm really not that powerful. If you want to refer to yourselves as your pets' parents, go ahead; I couldn't care less - but if I hear a newscaster or some public authority figure publicly referring to you as your pets' parents, I'm going to grumble, and perhaps post something curmudgeonly about it on Mudcat.

Some people give their cars pet names, and assign them a gender; I've got no problem with that, either, but I don't expect reporters and police to use said pet names and genders when they're recounting the details of, for example, accidents or car thefts.