This week on So You Think You’re an Adult, one listener asked for advice about what to do about his daughter’s pet - which he has grown to detest. 

The upset Dad said he loves his children “very much” but not one daughter’s choice of pet. 

“My daughter is in her late 20s and lives at home with us,” he explained to Moncrieff.  

“She moved back from England last year after breaking up with her boyfriend over there. 

“She had initially been very upset over it but thankfully, she is doing better now and has been working away at a job she got upon her return.  

“When she got home, she bought a pet rabbit to help distract her from the breakup. 

“Because she was so upset at the time, I didn't voice my concerns - but I hate rabbits. I mean, hate them. 

“Ever since watching Donnie Darko back in the day, I have had a phobia of them. 

“My daughter lets it roam around the living room; it defecates in my home and sometimes jumps up on the couch beside me. 

“I have made it known that I don't like rabbits to her but I'm at the point now where I want to ask her to give it away. 

“I can’t stand the thing! Is this the right thing to do?”

A baby and a rabbit. Picture by: Alamy.com.

The advice: 

Declan Buckley was sympathetic with the father, who he feels is right to want the rabbit evicted from his home. 

“The fact is, I personally feel he’s well within his rights to have a word with the daughter and say, ‘Look, the rabbit’s not working indoors, in this house. If you want to keep it, keep it in a hutch in the garden like an Enid Blyton book and leave my house rabbit poo free,’” he said. 

By contrast, Barbara Scully warned the daughter would feel hugely upset if her Dad made her get rid of her pet. 

“Does this man have a phobia or does he just not like rabbits? Because they’re too separate things,” she said. 

“This is a case of closing the gate after the horse has gone down the road; he’s left it a bit too late. 

“Was there no conversation? Did the daughter just come home and pull a rabbit out of her hat, literally. 

“Because I would be surprised if the daughter just came home with a rabbit and said, ‘Oh, here I am now and I have a rabbit.’ 

“He’s only himself to blame because he let this happen.” 

She added that while he is “entitled to make the rules” in his house, he has to realise that the daughter “loves the rabbit”. 

“People love their pets and if he just turns around and says, you have to get rid of the rabbit, that is going to be disastrous,” she said. 

“The daughter is going to be extremely upset, as she is well entitled to be.”

Main image: A young woman with a rabbit. Picture by: Alamy.com.