If one is interested or curious at all to find out what first time parenthood is like, just go to the r/NewParents subreddit. There you will find the details that most people either are too embarrassed to share, or that you really can’t gracefully process in a face-to-face scenario.

How should you react if someone confides in you that maybe they feel parenthood was a mistake for them? Or that they haven’t slept for more than 2 hours at a time for the past month? Some things are better left online because all you can really do in person is go “Oh dang, wow, that sounds rough.”

While that’s the wise way to react and hopefully end this type of conversation, if you were like me you’d try to further the it with the limited experiences you had to draw from: having a cat. “Yeah, tell me about it, last night at 3am my cat Moses wouldn’t shut up and it totally woke us up. Took me almost an hour to get back to sleep, so I get it.”

I can tell you’re feeling secondhand cringe for me, but as it turns out, new parents love this! Finally, they can commiserate with their friends about what they’re going through because lo and behold, the friend that didn’t go through pregnancy or childbirth actually have the same challenges they do – just with cats.

That’s a fur baby in a crib right there.

Cats and babies are so similar that this is a very tidy, surprisingly nimble little leap to make.

Napping: both babies and cats nap throughout the day, the lucky devils. You’re trying to do laundry and perhaps clock in some work hours but they insist on racking out in your lap so you’re stuck watching Southern Charm with your significant other. They both nap trap their caretakers with reckless abandon.

Feeding schedules: cats love to cluster feed! It's like hello just stick to a schedule I don’t want to hear you eating at random times of the day from your dry food bowl, jeez. Same for babies but like, easier because you don’t have to pay for breastmilk at the grocery store am I right fellas?

Managing poopies: there’s nothing more akin to servitude than cleaning up the excrement of your little one. The only difference (and I mean the ONLY difference) is that cats lick their butts to clean up afterward and babies require wipes. I guess in this category, you could chalk cats up as the easier of the two...I guess.

This is an often-overlooked Venn diagram that new parents really ought to enjoy more. All you crave in the first six weeks of parenthood is someone else going through it too. You want to bounce ideas, experiences and shames with someone who gets it. Well look no further than your friend with a cat, because trust me, they’ve had the cat a lot longer than you’ve been a parent and they really get it.

As a new parent to a FuR BAbY and a Junior in college, I was really quite a responsible parent to Moses. So were my seven roommates. So I really know parenthood.

It’s only fair to address dogs. Dogs are not actually a good fit for this crossover because their love is cheap and unconditional, not to mention you don’t have to deal with their poop, if you did there’d be a lot less around Denver’s high-rise apartments.

PS We’re six weeks in and couldn’t be happier. Reese is objectively the best baby in the universe and has us madly in love. Especially the poops, she makes her Dad proud filling them diapers!

PPS This isn’t anti-dog, we’ll get a dog when we get a dog but for now, I have to pull from experience.

SSSPSPSSPSSS...that was for your cat, from me.