It must be nice to have zero obligations that you need to attend to so you can stay at school for 10+ hours.
Not that I have an SO or a child, but I have a parrot. I feel guilty about making such a high energy and intelligent animal sit in a cage while I'm at school. Also, the minimum amount of time to keep a bird happy is 3 hours out of the cage per day. And, parrots require 12 hours of sleep per night. We get up at 7am. I try my best to stretch it a little but by 7:30pm I have a really tired grumpy bird on my hands. Do the math, and if I'm lucky that's about 3 hours of time from when I get home. So, yes actually, staying a bit late does make a big difference to me. I'm not about to get kicked out of my apartment because I have an unhappy bird yelling his head off.
That is all.
I can so relate to this (and how it really IS a huuuuge important rant in your life that sounds like a petty firstworldproblem rant to anyone else listening. Well it is a firstworldproblem, but a gut wrenching personal prob nonetheless. No one truly gets it unless they've been a parrot parent). That was me throughout middle and high school. Making sure that my cockatoo got at least 2-3 hours of quality out of cage time with personal interaction, and fighting desperately to try and make sure the birds had enough sleep.
And I commend you for trying to make it work out with your too in an apt with school. There was no way that was going to happen with my umbrella and grey (they would not have been happy, but even if I wanted to try you pretty much had to live in the dorms for my UG). So they've been in long term foster care at the most amazing bird sanctuary. By the time I graduate vet school, they will have been there for 8 years. Most people don't understand why it is that these birds have been a source of great stress for the last 14 years of my life when I realized at age 14 that I would be their caretaker for life. When I had them I felt incredibly guilty everyday for how I was failing as a bird mom. Since I've had them in foster care I've continued to feel incredibly guilty for failing as a bird mom (though it's less paralyzingly now since I know they're happy where they are, a lot happier than they would be with me while in vet school).
They weigh on me veeeery heavily currently as I worry about my job prospects. I need to do whatever it takes to get them back ASAP after graduation and have a good situation for them. After this long history I owe it to them to give them a good living situation with a good routine (no longer the take it day by day, hope you don't mutilate yourself to death one day kind of life). For me, that would be a house with a dedicated bird room that can be closed and darkened for bedtime, outdoor flight and some sort of arrangement for someone to give them supervised outdoor time daily during warmer months and quality indoor playtime during the day during the bitter cold months. That is a tall order for a new grad these days... But I need to make it happen. I've been thinking up of different ways to make it happen for several years now, so I'm sure I can make it work... My too now has a bonded girlfriend I will likely adopt, so that should help a lot in keeping him sane... But at the same time causes me extra anxiety.
It's kind of sad when I meet people as the crazy cat lady, and they have no idea that I'm even more of a psychotic parrot lady... Talk about an awkward dating situation. "I'm glad you're not turned off by my catladiness and think it's kind of cute. Lemme step it up a notch for ya. In 9 months my life will be dictated by what I can/can't do for my birds. Push comes to shove, my cat and birds will always be more important to me than you. If you decide to stick around, my cat won't affect your life too much other than that she's attached to my hip, but my birds will require a lifestyle change"
I foresee myself being alone into my old age...
