tl;dr - Don't get a puppy. Wait. Wait a LONG TIME. PLEASE trust me.
Sorry my dear, but it's not necessarily the worst thing to wait. As everyone has said above, puppies and dogs are a LOT of work and expense. After waiting for many years, I finally got my yorkie pup two weeks ago. Between work and caring for puppy (plus my other half helps a lot), my days have been FILLED from 4:45am - 10pm everyday. I tried to watch a show the other night and it took me 3 hours to watch a 40 minute program because I kept having to stop for "puppy mom" tasks... obviously a human baby is much more work, expense and responsibility, but a yorkie baby sure gives those human infants a run for their money.
I know you really want one now, but if your mom isn't just as excited as you - DON'T DO IT. It WILL strain your relationship and it is better to wait when the time is right for you to take full responsibility. My younger sister and I have a big age gap so I didn't live at home anymore when my sister was in middle school and she got a toy poodle puppy. My mom was VERY supportive of the decision, but in hindsight it didn't turn out much like my sister may have expected.
Fast forward more than a decade later and my sister has since graduated high school, gone to college and moved out and is very happily living with her wonderful boyfriend. A heck of a lot in your life (as well as you yourself as a person) changes from your adolescence to age 30 - - I'm 30 (my sister is now 24).
This is the point you roll your eyes at me and that's okay - - I would have rolled my eyes at me 15 years ago, too
What happened to my sister's toy poodle? He is still very much loved by our family (although is sadly losing his eyesight and hearing as he steps into his geriatric years) and still loves at home with my mother and stepfather. Even if my sister had wanted to take Seth away with her, my mother would not have allowed it. He had lived much of his life at the family home and my parents provided a lot of his care and it would have been TERRIBLE to uproot him... especially to the chaotic college life... dogs need routine and consistency. Without rigid structure, they are not happy.
Since my sister moved out she has lived in 3 different roommate situations, gone to school full time, worked multiple jobs, enjoyed parties, concerts, dating, friends, etc - - - AWESOME for the early 20's... not so awesome for a needy little dog :/
In my 12 years since leaving home and going to college and growing up I've moved 12 times and even had a broken engagement at age 20 that left me emotionally and financially destroyed. Most of those moves were in my early twenties / college years, but post college, you still have challenges as you are growing your career and discovering what you really want out of life. Even after my "wilder years" simmered down, the 2008 economy crunch led me to cross state moves from Michigan to Ohio, back to Michigan, to Colorado and most recently to Tennessee.
I'm happy to say that I am now doing very well. I've been in a very secure, loving, respectful relationship for 5 years, have an amazing career and am finally living in a beautiful house with lovely yard (after lots of grotty apartments) with my other half. Obviously nothing is ever certain, but we finally decided that we felt secure enough to welcome a dog into our lives that will hopefully be with us well into our 40's.
The other curve ball is when my other half and I started dating, he did NOT like dogs. He previously lived with a girlfriend who took in her family's geriatric dog (a dog she had gotten when she was still a kid and lived at home) after her mother decided a big empty house was too much for her and sold it and moved into a no-dogs apartment. He and his ex lived in a very small upper apartment and the dog was used to a big house and yard. The transition was awful for the dog... it went downhill fast and all of the issues made their living situation stressful and relationship strained. For him, that experience was more than a decade ago.
As I said, we've been together for 5 years. I've always been an animal lover and online dog website stalker and I have to say it's taken 5 years for him to come around, but if you asked me 5 years ago, I would have LAUGHED and said there would be NO way he would eventually help me research dog breeds, vet breeders, pick out supplies, pick out a little guy and help 50/50 with the care. He LOVES our puppy and puppy LOVES him.
If he hadn't come around and decided he too wanted this, it would have been a horrible decision for me to bring a pup into our lives. You learn that if you have a relationship with someone, you have to respect their wants/needs and if you try to make a dog-hater a dog-lover, 99% of the time it will end up with a lot of fighting, ultimatums and likely a broken relationship or homeless dog.
I'm really sorry for the INSANE LONG life story, but after my experiences over the last 15 years (include my parents divorce when I was 17), I could not in good conscience advise anyone to get a puppy that I wouldn't advise to start a family with a human baby. It's a serious responsibility.
Look at me. Two weeks in and I'm "that crazy dog lady" already.