The ideal romance features a sexy hero and an intrepid heroine. They meet. They fall in love, and they live happily ever after. But life is messy, and these days romance writers take a leaf from reality. They include some of the things we find in our own lives. There are divorces, remarriages, blended families. There are single parents with children, with pets.
Along with the man-woman thing, couples have to juggle children and pets and the courtship phase before they decide they can take their romance further.
Some readers don’t like their romances polluted with children or pets. Some readers have enough children and pets at home and don’t want to read about them too. For some people, kids are the ultimate contraception!
Here are a few advantages and disadvantages of including children or pets in your romance:
1. Kids and pets need looking after all the time, which means romantic adventures require planning in order to guarantee privacy.
2. Kids can’t be trusted not to blurt out things they shouldn’t.
3. Kids and pets can make characters shine and show their softer emotional sides.
4. Kids and pets provide fodder for cute meets and sometimes matchmaking opportunities.
5. Kids are determined, and if they don’t like you, they will let you know. Their dislike gets in the way of romance.
6. Think of the worst time for a kid to interrupt, and they’ll probably time the interruption to the second.
7. Dogs have sharp teeth, and have no problem with using them.
8. Pets are easier to foist off on friends and neighbors.
9. Kids require babysitting if you’re going to move the romantic action somewhere other than home.
10. Romantic scenes usually have to take place in the bedroom. None of this trying out every room in the house, and forget the kinky stuff!
My personal thoughts on kids, pets and romance? I love reading about pets in romances, but for children it depends on the author execution. Sometimes children work and enrich a romance and other times, they feel as if they’re in the way.
What do you think? Do you like romances featuring kids and pets? Dislike them?